Enhancing the Capacity to Manage Inland Lakes: The importance of human and cultural capital resources

While inland lakes in Michigan provide multiple community benefits, the aquatic ecosystems in many of these lakes are now significantly degraded, resulting in damages to ecological integrity as well as decreased utility by citizens and a decline in the municipal tax base due to loss in property values. Work with these lakes has revealed that lake communities vary significantly in their capacity to identify problems and implement programs to improve lake water quality over time. This study utilizes analysis of a survey based on the community capitals framework (CCF) to investigate what community capitals (assets) lead to better management capacity and outcomes in terms of improved management of lake resources through implementation of best management practices (BMPs). Statistically significant findings include the positive correlation between cultural capital and BMP’s in riparian communities with active lake management plans (LMPs) which demonstrated that as cultural capital increased, these communities were more likely to implement BMPs. Additionally, there were significant differences between BMPs and financial capital for the riparian communities. Communities with higher financial capital that had LMPs were more likely to also implement BMPs. Lastly, there were significant differences between human capital and BMPs for the LMP communities which means that higher human capital was associated with a greater ability to implement BMPs.

Presented by Jennifer Jermalowicz-Jones, Restorative Lake Sciences, and Stephen Gasteyer, Michigan State University, for the 2020 Michgian Inland Lakes Convention