A comprehensive holistic approach looks at the entire watershed, floodplain, stream or bog system as an inter-related environment. This approach requires a planning group to assess two major items: the resources necessary to undertake the plan; and the organisation appropriate to oversee actual bog assessment and management.

Community members who value their community’s long term vitality and high quality of life should support a highly participatory approach for planning bog protection and restoration. Building consensus among all community members (the stakeholders), however diverse, provides an opportunity to establish mutually supportive partnerships and obvious benefits of commitment to basic goals and objectives, and more meaningful implementation. Options might include allowing all planning and resource acquisition to be accomplished by:

• A resource agency

• Private non-profit association

• A public-private partnership

Whichever organisational option is chosen, a community approach is needed that involves various stakeholders in planning bog use, protection and management, for example, landowners, resource managers, local government, environmental advocates, and agricultural and business interests. A great way to start is to informally invite people to visit the bog together. This way, community members can compile resource information on the bog, identify bog management problems, and collect ideas rather than debate priorities or approaches.

This process would need to be repeated according to the number of community interests. The key is to build ownership of the decision-making process by providing opportunities for all stakeholders to contribute. These experiences should generate a fairly comprehensive list which may include needs, concerns, desires, problems, issues and even solutions from which goals and objectives can be developed. Goals, such as protecting the bog, should reflect more general directions, and objectives, such as conducting a student poster and poetry contest to raise awareness, should outline the more specific means of accomplishing the goals.

Next, choose an approach that incorporates either single purpose or multiple purpose planning. Most often, it is best to use a multiple purpose approach, this is to work simultaneously to meet several needs, e.g., preserving wildlife habitats, developing educational opportunities, and enhancing water quality in the environment.