Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Gary McDowell, director of the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, participate in a rural roundtable on Wednesday at the Waino Wahtera Pavilion at Northern Michigan University. Issues affecting the Upper Peninsula were discussed. (Journal photo by Christie Mastric)

MARQUETTE — Officials concerned about the Upper Peninsula’s well-being met with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Wednesday for a rural roundtable at the Waino Wahtera Pavilion at Northern Michigan University.

A main focus was the Office of Rural Development, which Whitmer established in January to focus on the needs of rural Michigan in the areas of economic and workforce development, infrastructure, public health and environmental sustainability.

Whitmer mentioned affordable housing, increasing population and fixing the roads as things that need to be targeted.

“All of these are important parts of the work that we’ll need to complete or do better,” Whitmer said.

According to the governor’s office, recent accomplishments include:

≤ signing bills to boost the food and agriculture industry by ensuring Michigan food and agriculture businesses can export their products to other nations;

≤ securing more than $50 million for food and agriculture economic development projects;

≤ signing budgets that invest in local economic development projects centered around the food and agriculture industries, and community revitalization and placemaking grants to support economic development in rural communities;

≤ creating the Food and Agricultural Housing Task Force to address the drawbacks housing has had on rural economic development; and

≤ closing the funding gap between schools to ensure that every school district has the same baseline funding.

Sarah Lucas, deputy director of the Office of Rural Development and former CEO of the Marquette-based Lake Superior Community Partnership, helped lead the roundtable.

“The people sitting here today are just incredible examples of collaboration, and I would say, resourcefulness,” Lucas said.

Marty Fittante, CEO of InvestUP, expressed concern about population trends.

The newest U.S. census data, according to InvestUP, indicated that Houghton County was the only U.P. county with a population gain.

This affects the educational system, Fittante said at the roundtable.

He mentioned the new $9,150-per-student funding recently put in place for state public school districts.

“It’s something to be really excited about, but at the end of the day, we need more students that are partaking in the foundation allowance,” Fittante said. “So for us, it’s really a defining metric, and really, it’s an issue that we need to champion.”

He also addressed a major draw to the U.P. — outdoor recreation.

For example, last Saturday’s Ore to Shore Mountain Bike Epic attracted its largest field ever, involving participants from many states.

“Outdoor recreation needs to be changed from a natural resources issue to an economic development issue,” Fittante said. “There is such opportunity with the virtue of outdoor resources amenities.”

Greg Nyen, superintendent of the Marquette-Alger Regional Educational Service Agency, said people want upward mobility for their children.

“We want them to transcend from the classroom, which they were born into,” Nyen said. “Yet, I think most of us around the table would be surprised to learn that as a region, students in inner-city Detroit have greater upward mobility than students in rural Michigan.

“Why is that? It comes down to resources. From 2011 to 2021, we realized about 268,000 new jobs. Less than 1 percent were in rural Michigan.”

Schools, Nyen noted, always look to eliminate barriers to learning.

“Mental health has quickly risen to the top of our list across the nation,” said Nyen, who again pointed out that students in rural Michigan do not have the same resources in this area as those in urban areas.

He said that several months ago, a group of area residents, which included health care providers and educators, gathered to discuss local services and identify gaps in those services.

The group continues to work to identify those gaps and then secure the resources necessary to provide the services that students need, Nyen said.

He gave credit to the state for certain investments, such as the infusion of school social workers, which are “certainly” making a difference, but addressed the intent of those investments.

“They were intended to be a service for students with mild to moderate needs, but because we have such a need at the severe level, or the intensive level, they’ve been pulled upward,” Nyen said. “The resources are great. We need them to continue to flow into our schools.”