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Program Description

The Wetland Program at the Inter-Tribal Council of Michigan was originally established in order to provide Native American Tribes around the State of Michigan with specialized services related to the development and expansin of Tribal communities, namely the need for wetland inventory and protection measures. Jurisdictional wetland delineations were provided for Tribes looking to develop newly acquired properties. Wetland and other surface-water inventories are seen as a necessary first step in the implementation of water quality standards and protective ordinances. The Inter-Tribal Council of Michigan also originally provided wetland functional assessments to Tribes in order for them to determine protection/ management priorities and disignated uses for the purpose of establishing wetland water quality standards.

Currently, ITC has expanded its capability for further assisting Michigan Tribes by possessing the capactiy to perform certain activities related to wetland monitoring and natural resource inventory. The use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is instrumental in tracking wetland and other natural community changes; these methods are utilized on almost every project in ITC's Wetland Program. The staff at ITC is also presently developing plant and invertebrate-based Indices of Biotic Integrity (IBI) for the Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Evaluating the health of the biotic communities inhabiting wetlands allows investigators and policy-makers to more accurately pinpoint the overall "health" of aquatic systems over the use of just chemical and physical assessments alone. Personnel at ITC are also well trained in implementing plant survery protocols so that natural aquatic and wetland communities may be described in the event that it is deemed necessary.

In the future, the Wetland Program at ITC will have an expanded role by also offering educational outreach and technical training to Tribal Communiites and Tribal Environmental Staffs throughout Michigan. Michigan Tribes are just now in the beginning stages of developing their own surface water programs to deal with specific water issues unique to their respective communities. Due to the problems of inadequate infrastructure and personnel turnover, these programs may initially experience a "shortfall" in the knowledge and expertise to get their programs to function effectively. We at the Inter-Tribal Council of Michigan, with our centralized location and comprehensive relevant exerience, hope to help alleviate this problem by providing regular workshops and trainings for the Tribes of Michigan based on their own specific needs. We are presently working with the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Bureau of Indian Affairs to secure funding and administrative support for this venture.

Basic Services Offered by ITC

The core basic services that we at ITC are able to offer Michigan Tribes remains unchanged and they are as follow:

• Jurisdictional Wetland Delineations on property slated for development
• Wetland mapping using GIS
• Wetland and Surface Water Planning and Management
• Wetland Functional Assessment
• Wetland Permit Application Assistance
• Environmental Impact Assessments

The list of available services from Inter-Tribal Council of Michigan has been expanded to include various elements tied to wetland monitoring and assessent, especially with regulatioon as the goal or endpoint (i.e. techniques that lead to establishment of standards and/or protective ordincances). These services include:

• Plant and invertebrate inventories of wetland areas
• Utilization of biological metrics to evaluate aquatic system health (for all surface waters, including wetlands)
• Technical guidance for surface water quality sampling

Contact Tom Sutter, Wetlands Specialist, for any questions regarding the Wetlands project.