Introduction
The Great Lakes Regional Collaboration's
December 2005 Strategy to Restore and Protect the Great Lakes outlined
the problems associated with habitat loss and degradation and provided
recommendations for protecting and restoring Great Lakes habitat. To
address the key habitat and wetland issues in the December 2005
Strategy, the Collaboration launched a Wetlands Initiative with the
following near-term goals:
- A wetlands challenge to federal and
non-federal partners to protect
and restore 200,000 acres of wetlands in the Great Lakes basin;
- Improving coordination of federal
wetlands management programs;
At the same time, the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers (Corps) initiated a 2 year, $1million project to develop a
Great Lakes Habitat Initiative that builds upon the recommendations of
the Collaboration’s Strategy. The initiative will help partners advance
habitat and wetland restoration projects by connecting partners with the
information and resources they need to make projects happen. This effort
includes developing a database and detailed inventory of potential
habitat and wetlands restoration projects.
Moving toward implementation, the two initiatives share similar
goals and have been merged into one overarching Habitat/Wetlands
Initiative. The initial focus of the newly merged initiative is to
coordinate efforts to accomplish the wetlands challenge to federal and
non-federal partners to protect and restore 200,000 acres in the Great
Lakes basin.
Activities
1. Provide a stakeholder forum for
partners to communicate, leverage resources and identify shared
opportunities for partnering.
The initiative will provide an ongoing forum that brings together
federal agencies, states, tribes, local governments and other Great
Lakes stakeholders to identify on-the-ground restoration projects that
contribute to landscape-scale habitat needs identified in the 2005
Strategy. The initiative will also identify ways to implement such
restoration projects by sharing necessary information, priorities and
lessons learned, as well as exploring ways to facilitate development of
partnerships and to identify and overcome hurdles to project
implementation. Meetings and conference calls will be held on a regular
basis to facilitate communication and coordination. In addition, an
efficient, simple, and functional approach to coordinating across
federal and non-federal stakeholders will be developed in coordination
with stakeholders.
Progress to Date
2. Provide partners with the necessary information to facilitate
collaborative restoration work.
The initiative will connect partners with information about
potential projects, programs and funding sources for working together to
protect and restore wetlands.
Progress to Date
-
The Corps has
worked with the partners to create a Funding Programs Inventory that
contains information on more than 150 funding governmental and
nongovernmental programs for habitat restoration work.
-
The
initiative has also developed a Restoration Projects Database that
contains over 200 potential, site-specific habitat projects entered
by federal and non-federal partners, and will be updated
periodically.
3. Monitor Great Lakes wetland
restoration progress.
Progress will be measured and assessed against the 200,000 acre goal
using the same definitions and methodology as the President’s annual
Earth Day Wetlands Report. Great Lakes restoration progress will be
reported beginning in December 2007.
Progress to Date
-
Since December 2005, an estimated
65,000 acres of wetlands have been protected, improved or restored
by federal agencies working with partners. Significant additional
acreage has been protected and restored by states, local and tribal
governments, and other partners
-
Options will
be identified and evaluated to develop a tool to monitor progress
towards the overall 200,000 acre wetland restoration goal. The
method will be consistent with the Council of Environmental
Quality’s wetlands tracking definitions and aligned with the
President’s Earth Day Wetlands Report.
4. Develop a User Manual
In addition to the three activities initially approved, a user
manual is being developed to guide partners in how to use the database
and tools to restore and protect habitat in the Great Lakes.
[1] The
Habitat/Wetlands Initiative was endorsed by the GLRC Executive
Committee on March 2, 2007
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