A few passing clouds. Low 61F. Winds light and variable..

A few passing clouds. Low 61F. Winds light and variable.

During this interview session for the Restoring Aquatic Ecosystems documentary, Joe VanderMeulen, on right, stands in the Platte River, just below Reynolds Road near Lake Ann, while Brett Fessell, on left, explains how the new timber bridge at that location returned the stream flow to a more natural condition.

During this interview session for the Restoring Aquatic Ecosystems documentary, Joe VanderMeulen, on right, stands in the Platte River, just below Reynolds Road near Lake Ann, while Brett Fessell, on left, explains how the new timber bridge at that location returned the stream flow to a more natural condition.

TRAVERSE CITY — For more than a century, the rivers and streams of Northern Lower Michigan have been segmented and pinched by thousands of road crossings and small dams.

This has reshaped and, in many ways, destroyed the natural state of waterways for manmade needs.

Now a new documentary shines a spotlight on the first Indigenous-led coalition of nonprofits and governmental agencies to revive the arteries of the Great Lakes to how the region once knew them.

Restoring Aquatic Ecosystems is a 26-minute look at the historical, cultural, and scientific approach to “water is life,” written and directed by Joe VanderMeulen, executive director of NatureChange, an online magazine devoted to conversations about conservation and climate change.

Featured in the film are 15 interviews from the partnership led by the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians — the Tribal Stream and Michigan Fruitbelt Collaborative — with the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy, Leelanau Conservancy, Conservation Resource Alliance, and Grand Traverse Conservation District.

“The water that flows in these rivers is the lifeblood of Mother Earth,’’ said Kira Davis, Anishinaabe kwe citizen of GTB. Davis has worked in water conservation for more than two decades, with an emphasis on water quality, wetlands, wildlife protection, and policy work within the Great Lakes Region.

She said Odawa culture and traditions teach that it is the responsibility of the Anishinaabekwe to take care of the water — a role that she has taken to heart in her career and personal life.

Odawa Anishinaabek have stewarded the region long before settlers arrived and depended on the wetlands, rivers, and streams for fishing, traveling, and ceremonial practices. For Anishinaabek of the Great Lakes region, wetlands have always been revered as a multifaceted place where traditional medicines, plants, and foods are found. Colonization from early settlers, through centuries of loggings and development, disrupted the connection that Anishinaabek had with the river systems.

The Tribal Stream and Michigan Fruitbelt Collaborative project expands from the Bridge of Mackinaw to the Manistee River, and the aquatic tributaries within the 1836 Treaty of Washington territories. Historically, GTB has partnered with numerous organizations to lead environmental restoration.

“This is a big-picture look at the regional watershed restoration through a team effort for the past six years,” said Brett Fessel.

Fessel serves as the River Restoration Ecologist at Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. His career on the Boardman-Ottaway River spans more than two decades as a Restoration Section Leader and River Ecologist.

As the water is forced through undersized culverts, it speeds up and shoots out through the metal tubes at a high velocity, which carves “plunge pools” down river at the end of the pipes, he told the Record-Eagle.

As a result, the stream’s morphology and hydraulic geometry, or the ability to provide the necessary conditions for aquatic organisms, is altered.

The restriction of water flows through road stream culverts, and small dams also have altered the natural movement of sediment down the river.

“This affects the stream’s ability to provide the necessary conditions for aquatic organisms of all different kinds to navigate,” Fessel said.

The project started with a $7.9-million investment in 2016, after U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Lansing) created the Regional Conservation Partnership Program in the bipartisan 2014 Farm Bill to form locally led partnerships between agriculture and conservation groups to preserve land and water, improve hunting and fishing, and protect the Great Lakes.

The initiative has since completed more than 60 stream restoration projects throughout Northern Michigan and targeted 2,500 acres of forest and farmland for permanent protection in the greater Grand Traverse region, according to Stabenow’s office.

The partnership has leveraged public and private funds to support the long-term restoration and protection of a Tribal fishery as well as address water-quality concerns along Lake Michigan.

Additionally, the partnership works with local farmers and producers to protect farmland in the region and enhance wildlife habitats throughout Northwest Michigan.

Steve Largent, Boardman-Ottaway River program coordinator at the Grand Traverse Conservation District, said the heart of the ongoing initiative is to try to undo “what has happened to the life lines of the region.”

Largent also serves in the Adams Chapter for Trout Unlimited, a conservation group of trout angler enthusiasts with a focus on protecting and restoring cold-water rivers and streams for healthy trout populations.

He said the capacity of the collaboration has allowed for a magnitude of funding with broader access, expanding applications toward conservation of streams and rivers.

The Tribal Stream and Michigan Fruitbelt Collaborative has directed more than $18 million in federal funding and $30 million in regional matching funds toward removing barriers to the free flow of rivers and streams and protecting farms that control stormwater runoff and pollution.

VanderMeulen said it was important to speak with an array of people in the professions of ecology, government officials, and biology, because he wants to encapsulate the importance this restoration and protective initiative is to all living beings in Northern Michigan.

“That’s why we do this,” VanderMeulen said, “ to bring awareness of the important efforts taking place for the waters.”

The public may view Restoring Aquatic Ecosystems on WCMU TV at noon on Oct. 2.

VanderMeulen said the documentary will be released on Nature Change’s website following that broadcast.

Report for America corps member and Indigenous affairs’ reporter Sierra Clark’s work is made possible by a partnership between the Record-Eagle and Report for America, a journalism service project founded by the nonprofit Ground Truth Project. Generous community support helps fund a local share of the Record-Eagle/RFA partnership. To support RFA reporters in Traverse City, go to www.record-eagle.com/rfa.

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