While inland lakes in Michigan provide multiple community benefits, the aquatic ecosystems in many of these lakes are now significantly degraded, resulting in damages to ecological integrity, decreased utility by citizens and a decline in the municipal tax base due to loss in property values. Lake communities vary significantly in their capacity to identify problems and implement programs to improve lake water quality over time. This study utilizes the Community Capitals Framework (CCF) to investigate what community capitals (assets) lead to better capacity and outcomes in terms of improved management of lake resources through implementation of Best Management Practices (BMPs). It also evaluates the Trophic State Index (TSI) of the lakes relative to the various community capitals. The exploration of this approach may be used in the future to specify which assets are most needed for improving water quality. This research increases our ability to understand capital resources and ultimately make recommendations to individual communities for optimal management capacity. Statistically significant findings include a positive correlation between cultural capital and BMPs in riparian communities with active Lake Management Plans (LMPs) demonstrating that as cultural capital increased, communities were more likely to implement BMPs. Additionally, there were significant differences between BMPs and financial capital for the riparian communities. Communities with higher financial capital that had LMP's were more likely to also implement BMPs. Lastly, there were significant differences between human capital and BMPs for the LMP communities, indicating that higher human capital was associated with a greater ability to implement BMPs.
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