UNITY ISLAND PROJECT

Buffalo, NY, USA
USACE

Unity Island, located in Buffalo New York in the midst of the Niagara River, was modified between 1938 and 1979 to build an incinerator plant that was decommissioned in the late 1990s. The island had previously shifted shape within the river, and is now being reshaped again after a $75 million project to clean the silt and sediment from the Buffalo River. The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) removed the sediment from the river in a project from 2000 to 2012. The USACE generates 135,000 cubic yards of sediment every two years when the agency dredges the channel for shipping. In 2012, testing began to prove that the sediment was clean enough to create a wetland at Unity Island where a 25 foot deep pond has been infilled with dredged material to create a 6 foot deep landmass that restores 5 acres of habitat for flora and fauna. The project creates contoured islands of varying depths for emergent plantings, as well as felled poplar trees as logs within the wetland. The project is a testing ground, as it is one of 43 areas of concern across the Great Lakes Region, where thousands of acres of wetlands have been lost, and riverine wetland habitat has been fragmented, causing the decline of aquatic and terrestrial species. While led by the United States Army Corps of Engineers who control the dredging operations on the river, the project is a partnership between federal, state and local governments, as well as local businesses and non-profit organizations.

2016 - 2019
10 acres
595 feet above sea level

References:

Links: