Management and Institutional Concepts for the Grand Traverse Bay Shorelands System

Abstract

As the result of a pilot study of the shorelands of the Traverse Bay region, the Michigan Water Resources Commission has recommended to the members of the Traverse Bay Shorelands Coordinating Committee that they adopt as a Bay-area goal the preservation of the Bay shorelands in as natural a setting as possible. The University of Michigan Sea Grant Program, through the Coastal Zone and Shorelands Management Project, under the direction of Dr. John Armstrong, endorses the principal recommendation of the Water Resources Commission. This report outlines some considerations for an institutional arrangement within the Bay area to meet the objective of retaining a natural shoreland. This report is deliberately brief, so as to facilitate discussion, but Sea Grant wishes to stress that this is a complex subject, requiring considerable thought on the part of local citizens. Therefore, Sea Grant is willing to provide considerable information on this subject if desired, including material on attempts at shoreland management in other parts of the country.