The moniker ‘The Great Lakes State? says it all when discussing Michigan. With water playing such a key role in so many aspects of Michigan life, many groups and municipalities are working to protect the resource.
The North Oakland Headwaters Land Conservancy hosts two speakers with in-depth knowledge on the subject during it’s annual fall meeting on Oct. 8.
Dr. Jon Bartholic of Michigan State University and Dr. John Warbach of Planning and Zoning Center Inc. will speak about water quality, the connectedness of water systems, legal issues and other topics.
‘Often, communities have no effective strategy for meeting preservation goals, no ordinances to support that strategy or they’ve written ordinances that don’t perform how they wish,? said Warbach.
Warbach said he sees a lot of communities who talk about protecting rural character, but whose ordinances fail to do so.
Bartholic said he will talk about the variety of services available on-line to map communities and look at wetlands in the area, including entering a resident address to see nearby wetlands and to understand the vulnerability of water quality to human use.
‘With development, there is threat of water run-offs at an increased rate causing erosion and other problems due to a lack of trees and plants,? said Bartholic. ‘Water quality and quantity efforts need to be integrated into planning processes to be sure there is ground water, wetlands and to maintain the aquatic ecosystems.
‘It’s important to support good strong watershed groups. Watersheds are challenging because they affect many municipalities and it is important to see how all groups of government can be integrated,? said Bartholic.
Clerk Nancy Strole has represented Springfield Township with the Upper Clinton Subwatershed Group, which involves the municipalities affected by the watershed and discusses important water issues and strategies for dealing with them.
‘What I’ve taken with working in the group is each individual has an enormous opportunity to impact water quality in a good or bad fashion. There can be all the regulations in the world, but it comes down to the individual. The biggest impacts for water quality, good or bad, is what we do in our own backyards,? said Strole.
Dr. Warbach serves as Principal with Planning and Zoning Center Incorporated out of Lansing, which is a private company that provides consultation for environmental issues and planning. Dr. Bartholic is the Director of the Institute of Water Research at MSU.
NOHLC’s annual meeting is open to the public and starts at 9:30 a.m. at the Independence Oaks Lewis E. Wint Nature Center at 9501 Sashabaw Rd. Refreshments are provided. For more information, call the NOHLC office at 248-846-6547.