Natural resource professionals attending the Regional Technical Workshops were asked to assess threats to wildlife and habitats within their lake basin or terrestrial ecoregion. Those threats with mean severity values at a medium to high level in all four ecoregions or all four lake basins, or greater than medium severity in three of the four ecoregions or lake basins were considered to be significant at the statewide scale.

Fourteen threats within six categories met these criteria:

• Habitat Conversion
  • Wetland modifications
  • Dredging
  • Channelization
  • Riparian modifications
  • Dams
• Non-consumptive Biological Resource Use
  • Non-consumptive recreation
• Pollution
  • Altered sediment loads
• Biological Interations
  • Invasive plants
  • Disease, pathogens and parasites
• Modification of Natural Processes
  • Altered hydrologic regimes
  • Altered fire regime
  • Fragmentation
• Education
  • Lack of scientific knowledge
  • Social attitudes

Two of these threats, invasive species and fragmentation, were repeatedly identified, through the assessment process and discussion at meetings and workshops, as being the highest priority threats to wildlife and landscape features in both aquatic and terrestrial systems throughout Michigan.

The habitat conversion threat 'Industrial, residential and recreation development' was also assessed as being of medium to high severity throughout the state, but as it is such a pervasive issue, it has been addressed through all of the other associated issues addressed within the discussions of the 14 statewide priority threats.