If you own property in the U.P., enjoy fishing, boating, hiking, hunting or any activity involving natural resources, you benefit from Michigan conservation districts. Conservation districts were created more than fifty years ago to serve as stewards of water and soil resources throughout the United States, and Marquette County Conservation District (MCCD) is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary this year.
Michigan’s eighty conservation districts provide programs, technical assistance, site visits, planning, information, referrals, education and, in some instances, financial assistance to a variety of rural and urban conservation efforts.
Conservation districts serve a client base as diverse as the land itself, and take an ecosystem or holistic approach to natural resource protection. The guiding philosophy of this approach is that decisions on conservation issues should be made at the local level, by local people, with technical assistance provided by government.
There are thirteen conservation districts in the U.P. In geographic terms, the MCCD is the state’s largest. It is distinctive in other ways, too: Marquette’s district office shares a building with the U.S. Forest Service, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Central Lake Superior Land Conservancy, Michigan Department of Agriculture and the Army Corps of Engineers.
The Marquette Interagency Conservation Center, which houses all of the above, is a green, one-story building directly across the street from the NMU campus at 1030 Wright Street. Set back from the street in an alcove of conifers and deciduous trees, and nestled behind a large urban garden of native U.P. plants and grasses, the building is hidden from street traffic.
Renee Leow, MCCD administrator, is the first person one is likely to meet upon entering the Conservation Center.
“The fact that we share a building with these other conservation-related agencies makes us unique among Michigan’s conservation districts,” Leow said. “We work regularly with these other agencies, often refer our clients to them and benefit enormously from the services and expertise they provide. It’s so convenient that we’re all under one roof.”
Leow likens it to one-stop shopping for someone seeking help with a conservation-related issue.
A variety of native Michigan wood paneling graces the hallway and offices throughout the building. Brass plates identify the different species of wood, but the aroma stunningly defies labels. The six paid MCCD staff members and the programs they administer are supervised by a five-member, publicly-elected board of directors.
Leow, like the rest of the MCCD staff, specializes, it seems, in multi-tasking.
“I do our bookkeeping, greet visitors to our office, act as a liaison between our staff and the district directors, and I’ve started to do some grant-writing, as well,” she said.
Relatively new to the job, Leow is unduly modest.
“I still have a lot to learn,” she said.
Chris Burnett, Ph.D., is the MCCD Forester/Ecologist. A self-described Appalachian Swamp Yankee who spent his boyhood in New England, he provides technical information and services to private landowners, local government agencies, communities, schools and residents.
“Conservation districts provide a gateway service for landowners and the public,” Burnett said. “We are the folks people come to first, as a rule, when they have a conservation-related question and don’t know where to start. We help a large number of our clients by simply getting them headed in the right direction and connected with the right people.”
Burnett’s career background and education are as diverse as the clients he serves at the MCCD. He has a doctorate degree in animal biology, experience as a college professor, a wildlife ecologist, “dirt forester” and as a consultant to government and foresters. Burnett’s varied resume reflects the MCCD dedication to meeting the unique needs of Upper Peninsula ecology, its land owners and the public.
Through Burnett’s department, assistance is available ranging from wildlife habitat, timber production, tree planting, recreation, forest health, “backyard wildlife,” bat houses and much more.
“I get paid to find out cool things,” Burnett said with a smile. “We’re very open to the public. Sometimes people come in with something they’ve found, asking ‘What’s this fungus?’ or ‘Can I eat this mushroom?’”
For all six staff members at MCCD, responding to individual client needs often involves getting out of the office and into the woods with landowners. MCCD staffers regularly speak to schools and civic organizations and interact with business groups and local government.
The focus here is on education and the establishment of networks and working relationships between landowners, the public, government, industry, developers and conservation groups.
Hampton Waring is the head of the MCCD Erosion Control Program. In terms of education and awareness, he gives the people of Marquette County high marks.
“We have a progressive, forward-thinking and well-informed populace here,” Waring said. “There’s good public involvement in local conservation issues, with many groups involved, as a rule. And when people seek us out at the MCCD, they generally arrive with a high level of awareness concerning the services we provide.”
Which isn’t to say that all land owners are as informed as they should be. When it comes to soil erosion, Waring said many people don’t realize the damage that just 400 or 500 square feet of open soil can do to nearby lakes, rivers and streams.
“There is a temptation among some landowners to clear their site right to the edge of a water body, whether they’re trying to create a lawn, a nice view or access to the water,” Waring said. “We encourage them to maintain native and natural vegetation on their site, and to leave natural buffers between cleared land and nearby water bodies. Those are two tremendous tools in the fight against soil erosion.”
Erosion is a significant problem in Marquette County, and it’s on the rise, due to home building and development along lakes and streams, beach projects, large land sell-offs and business growth along the US-41 corridor. This increases enormous pressure on the remaining undeveloped land to absorb run-off water.
Local builders, contractors and developers are generally very aware of state and federal regulations regarding site development, according to Waring, and compliance among them is quite high. Still, some building and landscaping projects ignore these laws and regulations. When combined with the increased volume of development in Marquette County, this increases the risk for degraded water quality in our lakes and streams.
Waring’s job involves enforcement of soil erosion laws, but he much prefers working in an erosion-preventing capacity.
“I assist many private landowners in the process of getting approval for their development projects,” Waring said. “We inspect the site, assess the project’s feasibility in terms of soil erosion, help them with the paperwork, and review their applications and permits.”
Becky Otto is the resident Natural Resources District Conservationist. As a member of the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), Otto provides technical assistance regarding conservation of soil and water. The NRCS is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and was created more than seventy years ago. Otto said the NRCS has a long history of cooperation and active partnership with conservation districts throughout the United States.
“Both organizations have evolved together,” Otto said. “Historically, the majority of our work is in agriculture, and we assist many farmers in the U.P. We offer them, as well as other landowners, management planning services regarding manure and agricultural waste, highly erodible land, wildlife habitat improvement, wetlands/waterway protection and restoration, planting recommendations, rotational grazing and nutrient management.”
Otto’s territory includes Alger and Marquette counties, and she’s involved in a variety of land and water conservation issues, including the recent efforts to fund and develop a stabilization and emergency watershed plan for Marquette County’s Dead River.
Through Otto’s department, clients have access to NRCS soil scientists and engineers, as well as USDA-sponsored incentive payment and cost-sharing plans for select projects.
The MCCD Lower Dead River Watershed Project, directed by Sarah Cody, is an excellent example of how conservation districts work in partnership with public interest groups to meet common conservation goals.
Cody works closely with the Lower Dead River Watershed Council, a citizens group formed in 1988 to address non-point source pollution, storm water run-off, erosion, fish migration, household/lawn/garden pollution and the impact of expanding development in Marquette County.
The partnership recently completed an inventory of the Lower Dead River Watershed and developed a watershed management plan with funding from an Environmental Protection Agency Clean Water Planning Grant.
The project is now making the transition from inventory and planning to actual implementation, which is expected to be finished by March 2008.
Suzanne Rabitaille is the MCCD native plants specialist and the district’s administrative assistant. The native plants program encourages the use of native grasses, shrubs and trees in both landscaping and restoration projects.
Rabitaille said it’s an approach that is really taking off.
“There are so many advantages to using native plants,” she said. “Once they’re established, they require little water and no fertilizer. Native plants provide food and habitat for native wildlife, and using them helps preserve locally native seed genotypes.”
Rabitaille offers technical assistance to people with small urban gardens, very large restoration projects and everyone in between.
“I make site visits, assist clients in properly matching up plant species, and offer instruction in planting methods, plant identification and maintenance, seed collecting, garden design and invasive species,” Rabitaille said.
In conjunction with the U.S. Forest Service, Rabitaille coordinates an annual native plants workshop, in addition to an annual conservation festival geared for primary school-aged children in Marquette County.
Rabitaille’s handiwork is evident in the large U.P.-native plant garden that graces the front of the Conservation Center on Wright Street. And a recent grant is funding the use of native plants in the Marquette Commons Linear Park, to be constructed between Fourth and Fifth streets.
Perhaps the most popular event sponsored through the native plants program is the MCCD tree sale, which takes place throughout the spring of each year.
Native Michigan trees, plants, shrubs and seeds are available for sale to the public, along with a wide selection of books, planting supplies and T-shirts.
All proceeds support the MCCD, and orders for this year’s sale are being taken now; the deadline for orders is April 1. Call the district office at 226-2461 for details.
—Bradford Veley

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