Goals & Objectives:

The University of Michigan Biological Station manages approximately 10,000 acres of diverse terrestrial and aquatic habitat in the Obtawaing Biosphere Region of Michigan’s northern Lower Peninsula. This project team will develop an actionable and adaptive stewardship plan for UMBS-managed lands and waters in Cheboygan and Emmet Counties as well as recommend policies (including regulations, processes, roles, and responsibilities) and an organizational framework for actualizing the plan. While advancing the UMBS goals of research, teaching, biodiversity conservation, and carbon sequestration, we seek a plan that is attentive to the following:

● Relevant federal, state, local, and University laws and policies

● U-M institutional roles and values including diversity, equity, and inclusion

● Ethical and responsible relationships between people and within the natural world

● Regional collaborations toward common goals

● Relevant social, economic, and ecological trends (e.g., climate change, population and development pressure)

Significant informational and data resources exist to support this effort, including preliminary drafts. Students will utilize existing resources as well as new data and information to incorporate the above goals into plans and policies. These plans and policies will provide guidance and consistency for ongoing and future management activities on U-M’s largest landholding.

Theoretical Justification, Social Benefit, or Significance:

UMBS is poised to become a regionally prominent and globally influential institution in the 21st Century. In addition to being a collaborator in regional ecological conservation and management, UMBS provides an example of local ecological conservation and management to students, researchers, institutions, and communities. Among its forests, lakes, streams, and wetlands, UMBS property hosts globally significant research as well as vast (and changing) biological and ecological diversity, including two federally endangered species. As the University makes critical steps toward carbon reduction , UMBS property plays an important role as U-M’s most valuable carbon sink. The plan and processes that develop from this project will establish a new baseline for ecological conservation and management at UMBS during a period of rapid global change.

Specific Activities & Duration:

This project seeks to establish clear and consistent mechanisms for converting ideas and information into actions that achieve ecological stewardship goals at the U-M Biologcal Station. With that aim, the fundamental questions of this project are:

1. How does UMBS establish stewardship goals? What are important considerations and constraints?

2. How does UMBS consistently and efficiently convert ideas, goals, and research into stewardship actions and results?

3. What data and information are necessary for decision making? How, when, and where are they collected, analyzed, and presented?

4. Who needs to be involved in these processes at various stages?

This project will pursue two outcomes: a stewardship plan and stewardship policies. Progress toward each of these outcomes will proceed through phases of research and synthesis. Students will work closely with UMBS staff throughout the project. In the first phase of the project (winter 2023), students will grow familiar with natural resource stewardship plans and planning and the settings and features of the U-M Biological Station. In the second phase of the project (summer and fall 2023), students will apply and develop their knowledge as they conduct site visits, gather and analyze data and information, consult with stakeholders and advisers, and utilize planning tools to develop and implement the stewardship plan. In the third phase of the project (winter 2024), students will synthesize and refine their (and others’) work into draft stewardship plans and policies for cycles of review by stakeholders and advisers and further revision, culminating in a final stewardship plan and policy recommendations.

In the initial phase of research, students will gather case studies and examples of relevant natural resource stewardship plans and policies via document research and consultations with researchers and practitioners. UMBS has established relationships with numerous government, tribe, university, and private researchers and natural resource practitioners with whom students will consult. Synthesis of this phase of research will result in draft goals, features, and frameworks for a stewardship plan and policies.

In the main phase of research, students will gather and organize existing ecological data and information, develop maps, investigate relevant University and government policies, identify and apply conservation prioritization tools, identify data gaps and propose and implement methods to acquire priority ecological data (including inventories, monitoring, and remote sensing), and engage with University stakeholders. Students will utilize planning tools including the Adaptation Workbook to develop comprehensive and unit-by-unit profiles, plans, and maps for UMBS lands and waters. Students will also summarize relevant laws and policies to develop and implement policy and organizational recommendations based on consultations with University stakeholders and external advisers.

In the final phase, students will prioritize completion of project components and finalize work from the previous phase. If and when completion of project components is unlikely, students will provide recommendations and plans for continued work. Final drafts of plans and recommendations will be circulated among stakeholders and advisers for review followed by revision. This phase will result in a final draft management plan and policy recommendations to be implemented at UMBS.

Integrative Approach:

The final products of this project are relatively straightforward. The range of skills, data, and resources that can be integrated into these final products is wide, and one challenge of the project will be to prioritize and focus content and activities toward intended results. The final products will be documents and maps that integrate written information and policies with data visualizations. This project will utilize and develop skills in planning, leadership and organizational management, project management, policy-making, communication, spatial data, ecological monitoring and management, and conservation ecology. With the final products in mind, students will be encouraged to explore and develop relevant knowledge and skills of interest.