Ford, UAW volunteers plant 200-plus trees and shrubs in Detroit industrial sector

An industrial stretch of Detroit is getting a green transformation this week as dozens of volunteers from Ford and the United Auto Workers give back to the community where they work.

As part of National Volunteer Week, Ford employees spent Thursday planting trees and shrubs at Fort Street Bridge Interpretive Park, a developing green space along the Rouge River. UAW volunteers will join on Friday. The effort marks one of the final construction activities before the park officially opens in late May.

With shovels in hand, volunteers helped plant native species designed to restore the riverbank and improve the surrounding ecosystem. For many, the hands‑on work was a welcome change of pace.

"I love to get my hands in the dirt," said volunteer Jill Andrews.

Michael Mazza, another volunteer, said the setting made the project especially meaningful.

"It's an industrial‑zoned area, and it's kind of nice to just be getting a little bit more earthy stuff over here, too," Mazza said.

Volunteers say they feel personally connected to the neighborhood and the work being done.

"We work just up the road, so it's nice to beautify and improve this area," said Tracy McAlister. "I don't do landscaping, so I thought this would give me a chance to learn a little bit."

The event was organized in partnership with Friends of the Rouge, which oversees restoration and programming along the Rouge River. Executive Director Ashley Flintoff says the planting effort is part of a larger vision for the park and the surrounding community. Soon, the Fort Street Bridge Interpretive Park will feature new amenities, including a boardwalk and Detroit's only kayak access point to the Lower Rouge River Water Trail.

"There's a lot of research that shows us that access to nature is good for both physical and for mental health," Flintoff said. "And being that this area is right in the middle of one of Detroit's biggest industrial corridors, it's really important to give the folks in this neighborhood, in this community, access to spaces where they can go, they can unplug, they can get a little bit of oxygen and daylight."

But the park is about more than environmental restoration. The site sits at the location of the 1932 Ford Hunger March, a pivotal event in labor history when workers marched on the Ford Rouge Plant to protest working conditions, a moment that helped shape the labor movement and the creation of the United Auto Workers.

"That was when the labor movement had a march on the Ford Rouge plant to protest for better working conditions for their workers," Flintoff said. "And so it has a lot of significance. We're really excited that volunteers from both Ford and UAW are here helping us beautify this space in 48217, which was actually Detroit's most polluted zip code."

Flintoff said creating green space in historically industrial neighborhoods is key to improving health, quality of life, and access to the outdoors for residents.

The volunteer planting effort is one of the final construction phases before Fort Street Bridge Interpretive Park opens to the public later this spring.