TRAVERSE CITY -- Four regional environmental advocacy groups collectively will receive more than $1.5 million in state grants for water quality projects.
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality this week awarded more than $4.4 million to environmental groups working to permanently protect and restore rivers and wetlands and allow for watershed planning.
Organizations in the greater Grand Traverse Bay region received about 34 percent of those dollars.
The Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy was awarded two grants, one for $500,000 and a second for $200,000. Only an agency in Van Buren County received more than that.
The conservancy will use the money to purchase conservation easements on land within the Grand Traverse Bay watershed in Antrim, Grand Traverse and Kalkaska counties. Much of the work will include parcels along the banks of the Boardman, Jordan and Elk rivers and their tributaries, said Matt McDonough, the conservancy's director of land protection and stewardship.
"By protecting that land, you're helping to protect the water quality of those rivers and in turn, of the bay," he said.
The goal is to prevent future development on about 700 acres, McDonough said.
The Leelanau Conservancy also received a $418,000 grant for similar work in Leelanau County.
"We will work with interested landowners to protect and maintain the water quality of the bay by protecting high-priority properties with voluntary conservation easements," said Matt Heiman, the conservancy's land protection director.
Such properties include those with wetlands or frontage on either Grand Traverse Bay or lakes and streams that flow into the bay, he said.
"The overall goal is to maintain the high quality of life, which is centered around water quality in this area," Heiman said.
A third local agency, the Watershed Center Grand Traverse Bay, received $257,358 to be used for a few projects. Those include stormwater control, bank stabilization and habitat restoration work on Kid's Creek, as well as watershed protection work in Peninsula Township and restoration of Antrim County's Maury Creek, a stream that flows into Lake Bellaire.
The big project is at Kid's Creek, work that will be done in conjunction with the Grand Traverse Conservation District, said Andy Knott, the center's executive director.
State grants are "extremely beneficial" for the area's water quality projects, he said.
"We live in a freshwater community and these funds come in and help us protect these resources we depend on. Our economy is based on this water," Knott said.
Finally, the Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council received a $147,096 grant for work in the Lake Charlevoix watershed in Charlevoix County.
Statewide, the grants and the efforts they support provide for the long-term improvement and protection of Michigan's environment, said DEQ Director Stephen Chester in a press release.
