CASSOPOLIS — Plans to better manage and protect the Dowagiac River Watershed were set in motion Friday afternoon in the board room of the Cass County Conservation District, 1127 E. State St., Cassopolis.

A baker’s dozen of environmental leaders, government employees and concerned citizens discussed ways to create a new management plan for the watershed, which encompasses 287 square miles of land and water in Cass, Van Buren and Berrien counties that surround the Dowagiac River. The last management plan was created in 2002.

Marcy Hamilton, deputy executive director for the Southwest Michigan Planning Commission, said the best way to fund the new plan would be through a Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, or EGLE, grant created for such endeavors. The Cass County Conservation District would be the applicant.

Hamilton wrote the 2002 management plan when she worked for the conservation district. During the meeting, she held up a VHS video accompanying the 18-year-old plan as proof of its antiquity.

Hamilton provided three reasons why a new plan would be beneficial.

First, it would update the conservation district’s watershed priorities, issues and implementation methods. Technological advancements, such as geographic information systems and aerial photos, would also make the plan more precise.

“We can go in concretely and say, ‘These are the areas we need to focus on,”’ she said. “Back then, we were just throwing stuff out there because we didn’t have the technology to narrow it down as much.”

For example, using collected data, the grant task force can now provide better information on wetland loss, areas of high pollution runoff and better solutions to each.

A second benefit of a new plan would be that it would become compliant with EGLE standards. The current plan does not take pollution from a mix of sources into account.

Third, Hamilton said, “It really opens up the door for any organization here that works in this area to apply for grants in the future.”

Future grants could range from pollution prevention to invasive species management to recreational perks.

The EGLE grant the Cass County Conservation District and partnering organizations seek only applies to a pollution management plan. It does not apply to implementing conservation measures.

Matt Hanauer, an EGLE employee that works on pollution grants, said the grant proposal task force is in a good position for the award.

“You have so much background data that helps you formulate your plans and know where the problem areas are already so you can really focus,” he said to the group. “You’re not just trying to get all the data from two years of monitoring as quickly as possible.”

Much of the pollution data Hanauer spoke of comes from the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi.

The Band may also be a key financial partner in the project. The grant task force must provide a 10-percent match to their proposed management plan budget, which Hamilton suspects will be about $100,000.

The task force has until March 11 to submit its proposal. In the meantime, members hope to source letters of support and identify key properties, mostly farmland and key wetlands, such as the Decatur mucklands, to focus on in their proposal and eventual plan.

Hamilton said the primary focus of the proposal and plan would be water buffers, which redirect or absorb potentially polluted runoff before it enters the watershed system.

“The river itself is pretty well buffered,” she said. “It’s the little streams and drains that are coming into [it] that aren’t, and that’s where [pollution is] probably coming in.”

The Dowagiac River Watershed is unique to Michigan in that most of its land is highly permeable and untouched by urban sprawl. This helps create stable year-round flows and cold year-round temperatures, which is great for the natural landscape and wildlife, according to the Southwest Michigan Planning Commission.

In tandem with the new management plan is the continuing deconstruction of the Pucker Street Dam on the Dowagiac River near Niles. Last fall, buildings associated with the dam were demolished. This spring, the dam itself will be taken down.