The Importance of Community Engagement for Successful Lake Management

Transcription

1 The Importance of Community Engagement for Successful Lake Management Jennifer L. Jermalowicz-Jones, PhD Candidate Water Resources Director, Restorative Lake Sciences

2 Old School: Traditional Limnology Limnos Greek root for lake Study of biological, physical, chemical characteristics of lakes Traditionally, social aspect has not been associated but NEEDS TO BE! Once riparians exerted an externality (living and developing on) lakes the human dimension cannot be separated from the human-lake interaction system

3 New School: Lakes and Community are Interconnected Municipality Lakes Riparians

4 Why is Engagement Important?

5 Ecosystem Shifts Can Occur in A Lifetime Spring Lake Ottawa County: Pristine in s according to long established riparians but devastated by toxic blue-green algal blooms today Problems with external and internal nutrient loading support dense algal growth Alternative stable states proposed by Scheffer et al., 2001) Such states result from loss of resilience in ecosystem (caused by nutrient loading, stressors)

6 Example of shift in Ecosystem From: Scheffer et al., 2001

7 Example: Spring Lake, Ottawa Co., MI

8 How Can Communities Deal with These shifts?

9 The Cycle of Empowerment

10 What Does Engaged Mean? Different from outreach and Dissemination of information in that the activity is not solely about an expert giving information to a community. Instead, an expert seeks continuous feedback from the community through interactive and adaptive methods in order to gain a unified vision of commonality that yields a sustainable outcome An impetus for change

11 What Does Engaged Mean? Mutually beneficial Exchange of information Systematic Collaborative/Adaptive Sustainable Increase capacity building

12 Key Attributes of Engagement Community-based participatory research Scholarly research Engagement techniques Systems change Program evaluation Partnering Capacity-building Communications Reflections

13 Keys to Successful Engagement Agreed upon common vision Shared goals/objectives Shared power/responsibilities Mutual benefits/reciprocity Adaptive Enhance community self-sustainability Understanding of issues for all parties

14 Case Study #1: Bear Lake, Manistee Co., MI Local riparians formed CCCM group to control invasive EWM on Bear Lake CCCM recruited multiple community leaders to come together for a single cause/goal Each individual had unique skills: marketing, science knowledge, influence, resources (pooled)

15 Case Study #1: Bear Lake, Manistee Co., MI Several community-wide meetings were held to solicit input from public and inform them of problem/consequences A mutual trust was established between the experts, the community leaders, and the local riparians-a key to moving forward towards implementation

16 Case Study #1: Bear Lake, Manistee Co., MI The result: A silent killer (EWM) was transformed from observation by expert to proactive vector that could be understood and controlled using methods acceptable to most of the community Nearly 320 acres of EWM treated in 2008 with only a few acres of EWM treated each year since

17 Case Study #2: Maple Lake, Van Buren Co., MI Integrated lake management methods utilized Critical Source Areas (CSA s) in watershed that required immediate attention Community leaders engaged other relevant parties to inform them of problem areas and propose cost-effective solutions

18 Beyond the Basin Improvement methods within the Maple Lake basin are limited to mitigation; however, watershed CSA improvements required empowering the associated populous and gaining support for mitigation of problem areas With this level of engagement, a series of solutions are offered to treat the root of the problem

19 Inversion Oxygenation: Community Education

20 Accountability on New Technology for Maple Lake Improvements RLS developed key measurable parameters that would determine the efficacy of the aeration system in Maple Lake and impacts on water quality, sediment reduction, and algae and aquatic plant reduction Data discussed with local community and compared over years to baseline data Data used for adaptive learning to guide decision-making for possible aeration system expansion

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23 The Result: Clearer Water! 2009 (Pre Implementations) 2013 (Post Implementations)

24 Expand Aeration System? Community to Decide Based on Sound Data/Collaboration

25 Current Engagement Project Long Lake, Iosco County ~ 497 acres > 500 homes on lake Contained nearly 300 acres of EWM in 2012 and after treatment in 2013 was free of all EWM-community wants to continue that pattern

26 Current Engagement Project LLPOA appointed a community committee to work on engagement exercises with RLS Pre and Post engagement metrics are being evaluated to measure change in knowledge, behavior, skills, and other attributes Overall goal is to enhance sustainable transfer of lake learning from the expert (RLS) to the lake community and be more self-reliant To be completed by winter 2014 and published in engaged scholar journal

27 Questions/Comments?