Agricultural and residential stakeholder input for watershed management in a mid-Michigan watershed

Michigan municipalities confront changing landscapes and pressures on water resources from urban sprawl and land use change. Municipalities have been asked to incorporate stakeholder perspectives in their efforts to develop watershed management plans. Confronted with the needs and interests of diverse stakeholder groups, managers may struggle to understand these groups’ disparate (and shared) watershed goals and concerns. The reported research collected data using a self-administered, mail survey of agricultural and residential landowners in a mid-Michigan watershed. The results reveal similarities and differences in how these residential and agricultural landowners use and perceive their shared watershed. Furthermore, the data reveal significant differences within these groups’ ranking of watershed uses, importance of watershed services, support for watershed programs, and preferred information source. The results demonstrate the utility of stakeholder surveys for watershed planning as well as identify key watershed use, knowledge, and concerns that are the same and those that differ within and across stakeholder groups.