The Headwaters Land Conservancy's name baffles some people. It shouldn't.

The conservancy is committed to enhancing and protecting the quality of the northeastern Lower Peninsula's natural resources. A key to that is the region's many "headwaters" rivulets and creeks. These small waters are the birthplaces of great rivers and Great Lakes. They often begin as swamps and marshes or springs and seeps, coming together as brooks.

As these flow, tumble or trickle invariably downward, they combine with others, becoming rivers and lakes. Most headwaters have cold, clean water with abundant oxygen, which supports life that would not survive in warmer, less-oxygen-rich water. Brook trout are indicators of healthy, oxygen-rich waters, typically headwaters.

As these cold, oxygen-rich waters enter their destinations, they begin to define the rest of the river system. Headwaters enhance the quality of the receiving waters by pumping cold, clean water into the main water body.

Headwaters are the lifeblood of our rivers and lakes. If we care for and nurture the headwaters, we strengthen the character and value of the main rivers and lakes.

The uses we make of the land adjacent to the headwaters affect the quality of water of the river or lake. Significant human development, erosion by construction or livestock, and polluted runoff can all degrade headwaters and rivers into which they flow.

The 11-county area in which the Headwaters Land Conservancy works is rich with headwaters of some of the most beautiful and famous rivers in Michigan and is the last of the big, wild lands in Michigan's Lower Peninsula. The headwaters of the Muskegon River start from the influent streams of Houghton Lake. Headwaters near Grayling form the famous AuSable River.

There are many more. The headwaters of the Black, the Sturgeon, the Pigeon, the Rifle and the Thunder Bay Rivers all meander across this beautiful northern landscape. Even headwaters of the Tittabawassee River begin in Roscommon County swamps.

What we do with and to the lands in northeast Michigan will determine the future of these headwaters, their rivers and the fate of numerous large lakes like Black, Burt, Mullett and even Lake Huron.