The Northwest Michigan Council of Governments has completed the Special Wetland Area Management Project in conjunction with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and in partnership with Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council. This was a highly successful project, and produced the following products:

• GIS wetland maps and CDs for each township in a 10-county area


• A Wetlands Functional Assessment Methodology in both a hard-copy manual and linked to the GIS maps through a digital database


• A guide titled “Preserving Michigan’s Wetlands: Options for Local Governments”


• A two-day conference focusing on wetland protection tools well-attended by the environmental and development community


• Ecological evaluations of wetlands for private property owners by local conservancy staff, contributing toward the permanent protection of those lands with easements.


• Training seminars on how to utilize the GIS data


• Local government policy application workshops held in three locations around the region


• Wetland Identification Training for local field staff


• A report addressing the cumulative impacts of wetland development of watershed functionality

The project was designed to offer tools and resources related to wetland and watershed management and to educate and raise awareness and involvement with these issues among developers, landowners and local government.

A series of presentations on wetland protection and the new mapping and assessment tools were made to local public and private boards by staff from the various cooperating agencies. Groups that received the presentations included the county and township planning commissions, Board of Realtors, Homebuilders Association, Chambers of Commerce, as well as various environmental and conservation boards. Presentations emphasized local information, and utilized local land conservancy, conservation district, watershed council and planning staff to describe how the new tools are improving wetland protection.

A Stakeholders Conference was held at the beginning of the project to kick off the activities, introduce the key participants from the expanded region, and solidify support for the project. This conference had a “peer-to-peer” focus, and targeted primarily those individuals in the region with a role in wetland protection, including drain commissioners, soil erosion control officials, soil and water conservation district staff, land conservation specialists, zoning administrators, and Michigan Department of Environmental Quality staff.

The GIS wetland maps created for this project are a combination of three data sources: the National Wetland Inventory data from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the Michigan Resource Inventory System (MIRIS) land use/land cover data, and digital soil surveys from the U.S. Soil Conservation Service. The resulting combined data demonstrate the most likely location of wetland areas. The GIS maps developed provide much of the awareness for wetland protection efforts across the region.

The GIS map products were developed for use with less sophisticated, less expensive ArcView and ArcExplorer software. However, most of the cooperating agencies were not using any GIS software, and without training would not be able to utilize the data for their own purposes. NWMCOG staff held training workshops to counter this deficiency. Three identical training sessions were offered:

• Session 1 - August 31, 2000


• Session 2 - September 14, 2000


• Session 3 - September 22, 2000

All sessions were held from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Conference Room of the Michigan Works Center, 1209 South Garfield Road, Traverse City

Each training session included:

• An introduction to GIS using ArcExplorer (download free from ESRI website!;


• An explanation and demonstration of composite wetland maps and data developed by the Northwest Michigan Council of Governments as part of the Special Wetlands Area Management Program (SWAMP);


• Hands on GIS exercises using SWAMP composite wetland area data;


• A CD containing SWAMP composite wetland data for Antrim, Benzie, Charlevoix, Emmet, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, Leelanau, Missuakee, and Wexford counties.

Public and private sector planners, conservation district staff, MSU Extension specialists, land conservancy staff, watershed managers, GIS users, and other environmental and land use professionals attended the workshops.