Sanctuary making plans

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After two years of planning, Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary officials hope the first comprehensive management plan for the site will be approved by spring or early summer of 2009.

The process started in September 2006 when the sanctuary held a series of public meetings to collect comments and get input from area communities about the management planning process. Meetings took place in Alpena, Harrisville, Rogers City and Lansing.

The 2006/2007 winter was spent processing the comments and during the spring of 2007, sanctuary staff and the sanctuary advisory council began working on the plan.

According to Superintendent Jeff Gray, once the management plan is completed, this will be the first comprehensive plan for the site. The new plan will be vastly different than the first plan that was created.

"There was one done before the sanctuary existed. It was a basic outline of what the sanctuary could do. This would be our first full management plan," he said.

The plan will be similar to a strategic plan which will outline the ways the sanctuary can best use and protect the resources which it already has. Funding for the planning process comes from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"The document is to help us focus on where we want to go in the next several years," Gray said. "It helps us focus on where we should use our resources and places we should seek additional resources."

Carol Shafto, sanctuary advisory council vice chair, said the plan will have an impact because during the planning process, the sanctuary and the council tried to meet various needs in the plan. It will utilize what's in place and what the sanctuary's goals are.

"The management plan will decide what's the most effective use of the dollars we have to provide services," she said. "The plan lays out the priorities that the public articulates so that we're able to manage programming and financial resources."

Working groups were formed that made recommendations for strategies and activities the sanctuary should conduct based on public input, said Tera Panknin, management plan review coordinator.

"There will be an introduction that gives background about the sanctuary and the management plan process. Then we have our action plans - they list the strategies and plans we plan to do in the next five years," she said.

There are five action plans which comprise education and outreach, resource protection, research, sanctuary operations and performance evaluation, Panknin said.

Gray said the specific goals and details of each action plan are still being developed.

"Right now we're putting together a draft management plan. That version, that's being done with both the state and NOAA," he said.

Following this step, the document will become available for public review on the Internet and through a series of public hearings which have yet to be scheduled. The public comment period lasts between four to six weeks.

After all of the public comment has been heard, NOAA will revise the document based on what's been heard and it will go through a final approval process in Washington D.C., Gray said.

"It's an intensive process. It's pretty critical to what we do. It helps us to adaptively manage resources and what's impacting them," he said. "It makes sure we're staying focused and keeping our eye on the ball."

Each sanctuary is required to look at its management plan every five years. Because it's a public process, it takes a long time to get them done, said Gray.

Gray said implementation of the plan will depend on collaborating with the community and area organizations. Some of these partnerships would include current ones such as with the schools and the Alpena County Library. Annually the sanctuary will determine their priorities for the year through its internal operating plan.

Patty Ramus can be reached via e-mail at pramus@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5687.