Michigan Water Stewardship Program

Photo Credit: Stephanie Boothroyd

Background
The Michigan Water Stewardship Program (MWSP) is a partnership of organizations that provide educational assistance to Michigan's residents to identify and reduce contamination risks to water and other natural resources. The program encourages individuals to take voluntary proactive steps to protect Michigan's water quality - our drinking water - as well as protect our other valuable natural resources, while caring for our family's health.

​Michigan is lucky to be the Great Lakes State, and home to over 11,000 inland lakes, 63 major watersheds, and tens of thousands of miles of rivers and streams. However, with that much water, there are bound to be some problems. From contaminated drinking water in Flint, PFAS contamination, and pollution in Lake Erie, Michigan has it's hands full. But while legislatures are busy trying to find fixes, why not teach our children why it's happening, and how to prevent it or reduce it from happening again? A partner with Eaton Conservation District, Michigan Water Stewardship Program is a website that is full of water saving advice and best management practices for teachers, students, and homeowners. Complete with a water story, lesson plans, and resources, this is a great avenue for educators who are looking to supplement their watershed lesson plans.

It is the goal of the MWSP website to provide accurate, up-to-date water quality information to Michigan's residents. The website is divided into sections for Residents, Youth Stewards, and Educators. Each section presents water quality information in a way that is the most useful and easy to understand for each group. There are homeowner checklists and informational brochures, youth activities and online games, and presentations and lesson plans for teachers. The website also contains a Latest News section that posts news stories from around the Great Lakes region as well as a listing of Local Resources to connect you with organizations in your area.

Since the website's launch in 2011, there have been over 430,000 page views and 175,000 new users.  This website is being utilized by countries all over the world.