How We Work

ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

Each year SWP projects provide a significant economic benefit for communities across the Upper Peninsula. The SWP staff includes ten year-round employees plus over a dozen seasonal field staff. In addition, many of the large scale SWP field projects require engineering, equipment contractors, materials and labor. The SWP also helps to promote sustain- able economic development including nature tourism, land-use planning and incorporating best practices into regional development projects. In addition, hundreds of homeowners and many local businesses have benefited from SWP energy conservation and alternative energy programs. Almost every SWP project, including our community pollution prevention programs, has a direct or in-direct benefit for the Upper Peninsula economy and environment.

WATERSHED COUNCIL

The Superior Watershed Partnership assists citizen-based watershed councils in communities throughout the Upper Peninsula. By gathering together, citizens from all different walks of life can unite to assure the health of their watershed. Through collaboration you can:

1. Attend public meetings regarding land use changes in your watershed.
2. Educate neighbors and family about shoreline protection and good land management practices.
3. Demand clean water regulations from government officials.
4. Gather for fun events like canoeing the river, beach clean-ups and the like.
5. Run for a local government office in your watershed.
6. BECOME THE VOICE OF YOUR WATERSHED!

The Superior Watershed Partnership can assist your Watershed Council with:

• Road/Stream Crossings Evaluation
• Erosion/Sedimentation Impact Evaluation
• Research, Inventories, and Monitoring of Aquatic Systems
• Public Education Tools
• Habitat Restoration
• Land Use Planning
• Pollution Prevention
• GIS Analysis and Map Production

Current (or forming) U.P. Watershed Councils

• Chocolay River Watershed Council - Marquette County
• Compeau Creek Watershed Council - Marquette County
• Whetstone Brook and Oriana Creek Watershed Council - Marquette County
• Salmon Trout River Watershed Technical Advisory Group - Marquette County
• Two-Hearted River Watershed Advisory Council - Luce and Alger Counties
• Big Creek Watershed Council - Marquette County
• Pilgrim River Watershed Council - Houghton County
• Trout Creek Watershed Council - Chippewa County
• Lower Dead River Watershed Council - Marquette County
• Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve - Marquette County
• Carp River Watershed Council - Marquette County
• Deer Lake Area of Concern - Marquette County
• Straits Area Watershed Council - Mackinac County
• Huron Creek Watershed Council - Houghton County
• Huron River Watershed Partnership - Marquette and Baraga Counties
• Munising Bay Watershed Council - Alger County
• Sturgeon River/Otter River Watershed Council
• Les Cheneaux Islands Watershed Council - Mackinac County
• Ontonagon River Watershed Council - Ontonagon County
• Iron County Watershed Coalition - ****NEWEST COUNCIL MEMBER****

 
The Superior Watershed Partnership Watershed Council Toolkit

This toolkit can help your Watershed Council organize, prioritize issues, and utilize the SWP for assistance. These Toolkits are available by request at our office. If you are interested in learning more about Citizen-led Watershed Councils or want to start one in your watershed, please call our office.
View it as a .pdf document here: Watershed Council Toolkit

"The Superior Watershed Partnership has made many improvements to our creeks and rivers that run through the City of Marquette and have completed many projects throughout the City.  This is nothing short of why Marquette is a better place to live.  I would like to thank the SWP for all the projects they have completed."

-- John DePetro, Marquette City Commissioner, June 2010

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SWP Mini Grants

The Superior Watershed Partnership (SWP) is offering mini-grants to community groups to help cover the costs of river and beach clean-ups in communities throughout the Upper Peninsula. Funding can be used to cover costs associated with river, trail, open space, and beach clean-ups including but not limited to gloves, garbage bags, and trash disposal. A limited amount of funding is also available for hauling and disposal of larger items such as appliances, barrels, tires, etc. Beach clean-ups can include Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron and inland lakes in the Upper Peninsula. Funding is available on a reimbursable basis. For more information please call (906) 228-6095.

Download the mini grant application.  Please fill it out and return it to Natasha Koss, 2 Peter White Drive, Marquette, MI  49855.

The SWP works with all five Native American Tribes in the UP including, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Indians, Hannahville Potawatomi Indian Community, Bay Mills Chippewa Indian Community, Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. 

More information will be coming soon, but in the meantime check out the Great Lakes and St. Lawerence Cities Initiative website.

Click here for the May issue of Making Waves, the GLSCI newsletter.

Lake Superior is unique, a vast resource of fresh water that has not experienced the same levels of development, urbanization and pollution as the other Great Lakes. Because of this uniqueness, the International Joint Commission recommended that Lake Superior be designated as a demonstration area where discharges and emissions of toxic substances that are long-lived in the environment and build up in the bodies of humans and wildlife, would not be permitted. In response, Canada and the United States developed the Binational Program to Restore and Protect the Lake Superior Basin.

This program has focused on the entire ecosystem of Lake Superior, its air, land, water, people, and wildlife. Government and tribal agencies and interested groups from Michigan, Minnesota, Ontario and Wisconsin, along with both federal governments, have taken steps that will restore degraded areas and protect this unique headwater lake through activities such as pollution prevention, enhanced regulatory measures and cleanup programs.

The Superior Watershed Partnership has been an active partner in the Binational Program for over a decade and has assisted in developing the Lake Superior Lakewide Management Plan (LaMP) and helping to achieve many of the goals of the program including pollution prevention, habitat restoration and public education. With citizen and stakeholder partners, most notably the Lake Superior Binational Forum, objectives have been identified and a vision established for the cleanup and protection of the lake. The governments have funded pollution prevention activities, research to characterize the lake ecosystem and identify the sources of pollutants and their effect on life, projects to clean up, and the restoration and protection habitat.

Lake Superior Lakewide Management Plan (LaMP) 2008

A Lakewide Management Plan, or "LaMP", is a plan of action to assess, restore, protect and monitor the ecosystem health of a Great Lake. It is used to coordinate the work of all the government, tribal, and non-government partners working to improve the Lake ecosystem. A public consultation process is used to ensure that the LaMP is addressing the public's concerns.

Visit the EPA's website to view all of the Great Lakes Lakewide Management Plans (LaMPs).