The Boardman River Watershed Prosperity Plan (brochure) is a vision and roadmap for the future management of one of Michigan’s most beautiful watersheds. It meets the community’s desire to have a management plan for the river and provides a blueprint for multijurisdictional cooperation to improve the environmental, economic, and social prosperity of the watershed region.

The Prosperity Plan identifies prosperity for the watershed as achieving economic well-being for its residents, protecting and maintaining a high-quality environment, supporting healthy lifestyles, helping people connect and engage with the environment and with each other, and offering a diverse range of social and cultural opportunities.

Goals

To achieve the vision of the Prosperity Plan, five broad goals were identified:

1. Protect, restore, and enhance the high-quality water and other natural resources that are the backbone of social and economic prosperity in the watershed.
2. Support a sustainable economy that benefits and strengthens all of the watershed communities.
3. Improve the quality of life and advance greater social equity throughout the watershed to retain and attract businesses, a talented workforce, and student and retiree residents.
4. Provide managed expansion and improvement of recreation opportunities in the watershed to attract a talented workforce, student and retiree residents, and visitors from around the world.
5. Through education and engagement efforts, create community ownership of the Prosperity Plan and community capacity that will assure implementation of recommended actions and achievement of the goals and objectives.

Individually and collectively, these goals help protect and restore the Boardman River watershed, making this region a world-class place to live, operate a business, or visit.

Implementation Strategies

Specific and tangible actions and recommendations were developed that residents, businesses, and communities in the Boardman River watershed need to undertake to achieve the Prosperity Plan’s goals and objectives. Effective watershed management relies on an integrative approach that includes best management practices; partnerships, community consensus building, and local government participation; and information and education components.

Evaluation and Oversight

As projects and tasks identified in the Prosperity Plan are implemented, they will be monitored and evaluated for success. The plan will be evaluated both in terms of progress in implementing proposed tasks and in success improving and protecting water quality, as well as overall environmental, economic, and social prosperity in the watershed.