Our Work

A watershed management plan identifies problems and threats to water resources and develops a framework to address these issues within a specific watershed.

Our water resource inventories and surveys are one of the many approaches that the Watershed Council uses to protect Northern Michigan’s water resources.

For more than 30 years, the Watershed Council has worked with local residents to keep a watchful eye on Northern Michigan’s waters.

Northern Michigan’s lakes, streams and wetlands are precious natural resources.

We perform wetland determinations to assess if a site includes the hydrology, soils, and vegetation associated with wetlands.

We offer recommendations on site development concepts and plans to better preserve water quality through stormwater management, invasive species control, habitat enhancement, and shoreline, streambank, and wetland protection.

We work with municipalities to assess impacts of stormwater runoff on local water resources through inventories and mapping of stormwater drainage areas, inlets, outfalls, and treatment structures in urban areas.

We perform septic evaluations on shoreline properties. Groundwater monitoring along the shoreline and dye tracers are used to determine if septic leachate is contaminating the lake or stream.

We assess existing greenbelt conditions and develop greenbelt designs for residential, commercial, and public shoreline properties.

We develop and print maps of lakes, streams, or other water features.