Guiding Collaborative Water Resource Management within the Obtawaing Biosphere Region

Abstract

Centrally located within the Laurentian Great Lakes, the newly reimagined Obtawaing Biosphere Region (OBR) is a geographic area recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The expanse covers the northern Lower Peninsula and eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and seeks to promote the interconnectedness between local communities, culture, and the environment through regional partnerships. The term “Obtawaing” comes from the Anishinaabe term for “at the halfway place,” and signifies the historical and ongoing role of Native American and First Nation peoples’ management and governance in the region. In 2022, the new OBR coalition came together to form a strategic planning framework which provides a living document of the coalition’s mission and goals. However, implementing cohesive management strategies requires additional attention to the region’s historical landscape focus and stressors. In 1979, UNESCO designated the University of Michigan Biological Station (UMBS) properties for the core protected land and waters as a biosphere reserve. As this area transitioned from one core biosphere reserve to a broadened biosphere region, it expanded to include a range of diverse partners, communities, and ecosystems. The OBR now encompasses a heterogeneous landscape that consists of an elaborate mosaic of ecological, hydrological, and societal factors. Northern Michigan has varied physiography and complex hydrology, which support a wide array of ecosystems and human societies. Due to the landscape heterogeneity and the social complexity characteristic of this region, emphasizing cohesive regional identities, creating a culture of collaboration, and realizing collective management efforts have been a major challenge. With increasing regional stressors of changing climate and increasing development, the OBR is making concerted efforts to highlight and unify around the region’s hydrologic resources. Since water flows across societal boundaries and through diverse landscapes, it carves a path linking communities and ecosystems. Regardless of the differences in OBR partner work, water remains a constant shared connection across places, among people, and through time. To reinforce the OBR’s mission, this project aimed to capture perspectives on water values through interviewing, establish a collective vision surrounding water resources through mapping and development of a StoryMap, as well as provide a series of recommendations for how the OBR can establish unified efforts into the future. We developed five main themes from interviewing local conservation organizations in the OBR, including 1) organizational structure for partner participation, 2) types of strategies in community engagement, 3) collaborators and processes for project collaboration, 4) surface 1 or groundwater focus, and 5) data sharing and management practices. We accumulated ecological, hydrological, infrastructural, and sociological spatial data layers that formed a principal geodatabase that stores relevant layers in a single location and in a common format. We then created a series of regional maps to visualize and conceptualize dimensions of the OBR. These maps built the foundation for a water-centric StoryMap for the OBR, which aimed to promote a collective vision, engage a broader audience, and expand partnerships. Lastly, based on our interviewing and mapping objectives, we determined 11 key recommendations for the future of the OBR. In summary, we hope these recommendations, along with our water mapping tools, can provide guidance to the OBR coalition of partners towards collaborative management motivated by shared values in water resources. With this, the OBR can foster a meaningful culture of collaboration that works towards a unified effort in regional freshwater resources and relationships to continue to promote healthy ecosystems and communities as one.