THE GREAT LAKES REGIONAL COLLABORATION

In an effort to advance ongoing work to protect the Great Lakes, President George W. Bush issued an Executive Order in May 2004 recognizing the Great Lakes as a "national treasure," and creating a federal Great Lakes Interagency Task Force to improve coordination of federal programs in the Great Lakes watershed. The order also directed the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to convene a "regional collaboration of national significance for the Great Lakes." This collaboration was critical to consensus building to develop a restoration and protection action plan for the Great Lakes. It required extensive communication with the public, educational institutions, non-governmental organizations, and all levels of government.

The resulting Great Lakes Regional Collaboration is a comprehensive, cooperative effort to design and implement a strategy for the restoration, protection and sustainable use of the Great Lakes. The action plan for the Great Lakes was written by experts who were organized into eight strategy teams based on priorities identified by the Council of Great Lakes Governors. The teams drew on the knowledge from about 1,500 subject-matter experts with diverse backgrounds from federal, state, regional, municipal, and tribal governments as well as non-governmental organizations and universities. The 65-page “Strategy to Restore and Protect the Great Lakes” was ceremonially released on December 12, 2005 at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, Illinois. The Strategy outlines specific actions to improve the water quality and ecosystem function over the next five to fifteen years. On-going communication efforts to build support for the Great Lakes ecosystem are an integral part of the actions outlined in the Strategy.