CHATHAM — A group of people gathered at the Chatham Township Hall along M-94 Thursday evening to participate in a “community conversation” focused on ecotourism in the Upper Peninsula.

About 15 people attended the workshop, which was was led by David Kronk, a former park ranger of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

Kronk, who’s now a Health and Human Performance professor at Northern Michigan University, teamed up with fellow professor Scott Jordan about two years ago to begin NMU’s Sustainable Ecotourism Organization. The organization aims to address and educate local communities, particularly those in Alger and Marquette counties, about ecotourism. According to the professors, ecotourism is defined as “responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment, sustains the well-being of the local people, and involved interpretation and education.”

The organization received $5,000 from the Michigan Humanities Council to continue studying ways to sustain the well-being of local people and areas being impacted by tourism. Kronk and Jordan started meeting with forest, park and tribal frontline environmental representatives, business owners within and outside the tourism sector, and local community members to obtain well-rounded material.

“The idea of sustainable tourism is to protect the communities social/cultural economic environmental assets,” Kronk said. “It’s been done in other places, but the key is it takes community involvement.”

Kronk began Thursday’s workshop asking participants to state the first word that comes to mind when they think of “tourism.”

“Experience,” “snowmobilers,” “opportunities,” and “traffic” were among some of the replies.

Over the years, Alger and Marquette counties have noted an increase of visitors in the winter and summer.

PRNL Superintendent David Horne said at the February meeting of the Economic Club of Marquette County that the number of area visitors was at an all-time high last year, with around 810,000 people exploring the park. The National Park Service also reported that about $34 million was spent in surrounding communities.

Marketing and advertising, partnerships, the Pure Michigan campaign and technological advances have helped bring people to the region, according to John Madigan, general manager and part-owner of Munising’s Pictured Rocks Cruises.

Several people who attended the community conversation said they’re unable to enjoy the area’s recreational assets as much when tourism is in full-swing.

Kronk suggested those concerned join a committee or local government board to be a part of the change they’d like to see.

“In the last two years, we’ve held these meetings mostly in Munising and we now have six active committees from our Sustainable Tourism Organization. Each with a leader — one in alternative energy, one local food, one recycling, one sustainable/affordable housing, one ‘Leave No Trace’ ethics and one new businesses that are sustainable,” Kronk said. “Get active with committees and planning commissions, maybe there can be limits set to maintain. It’s not going to happen unless the community gets behind it.”

Kronk said citizen action groups in Munising were responsible for starting a recycling program, developing a plan to increase the local food supply and drafting a plan to address environmental impacts on local resources associated with increased tourism.

“At the end of the day, you can curate what your own area’s tourism is like,” said Alex Palzewicz of Taste the Local Difference Michigan. “This is an opportunity to decide what that’s going to look like rather than letting somebody else decide.”

From 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on April 5, a Design Charrette Workshop will be held at Northern Michigan University.

During the workshop and luncheon the following tourism issues will be addressed: What is sustainable tourism? What are the current tourism assets of the greater Marquette area? What are different views of a sustainable tourist economy in the greater Marquette area? What infrastructure exists that is key to accessing, using and enjoying these tourism assets in a sustainable way? What area improvements are coming in 2019 and 2020 to support the local tourism economy? What is missing in order to make the Marquette tourism economy more sustainable?

Space is limited for the community workshop, so those interested should complete the following online survey — https://nmu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8AoFUY0c6nBj15P — and list reasons why they would be a valuable participant.

From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on April 12, a workshop will be held in Munising. If interested, the survey can be found at https://nmu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_2idM5jWN1xtooYJ

For additional information, contact Kronk at dkronk@nmu.edu.

Jaymie Depew can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 206. Her email address is jdepew@miningjournal.net.