Habitat Conservation
Member Spotlight: Annual Thames River clean up builds community, restores rivershore, and educates residents
With the support of a community and local businesses, a watershed protector fights to ensure the Thames River is cared for. Todd Sleeper knows that water systems are the backbone of any community and he is doing everything he can to keep the river clean and healthy for generations to come.
Have we been missing the boat on protecting underwater habitat?
We take pride in our national, state and provincial parks because they enable us to protect wildspaces. But what about our underwater landscape? It’s time we bring these critical habitats to the top of our minds.
Education program builds links between schools, watershed, and community
Since 2008, Great Lakes United has been working with colleges in Quebec to integrate environmental education in curricula.
State of the Lakes? Not that Great
After decades of monitoring the Great Lakes ecosystem, the Canadian and U.S governments still have only limited knowledge of the status of human and wildlife health in the Great Lakes and do not know whether that status is improving or getting worse.
Connecting the Great Lakes to their Headwaters
When we talk about the problems facing the Great Lakes basin, we often do it by talking about what the lakes themselves will face. Absent from these discussions are the headwaters where the story of the Great Lakes begin.
Superior mining onslaught
Around the globe, metallic sulfide and uranium mines have laid waste to watersheds. Today, potential mining sites literally surround Lake Superior. These projects threaten some of the most pristine areas of the Great Lakes region, and risk irreversible harm to one of the most magnificent lakes in the world.
Return of the Detroit River’s Charismatic Megafauna
Over 35 years of pollution prevention and control undertaken in response to the Canada-U.S. Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, U.S. Clean Water Act, Canada Water Act, U.S. Endangered Species Act, and more have resulted in a return of charismatic megafauna.
Green stormwater management gaining ground
For fifty years, stormwater engineers have considered rain a nuisance. It is something best evacuated quickly from roads and sidewalks and diverted into concrete gutters and underground pipes.
Lake Superior harbour to be mined for Michigan highways
A large block of former Algoma Central Railway lands on Lake Superior’s Michipicoten Harbour, near Wawa, Ontario, was sold to Superior Aggregates Company, a U.S. corporation. The company intends to strip the site of soil, vegetation, and timber, and then drill, blast and crush the coastal rock to within 65 metres of the shoreline. The privately-held block of land is nestled within 160 miles of Lake Superior shoreline protected by a national park, three provincial parks and two conservation reserves. The resulting aggregate is destined for shipment by freighter to Michigan for use in highway construction.
A Great Lakes year
This has been a remarkable year for Great Lakes protection. As 2008 comes to a close, we reflect on some of the achievements citizens and organizations across the region deserve to celebrate.
© 2008 Great Lakes News. 
