Our Great Lakes

As Great Lakes citizens, we need a healthy Great Lakes ecosystem to ensure our own health, well-being, and economic security. The lakes were in decline during much of the 1900s, but decades of sustained efforts have been reversing the damage. People in both nations have put a tremendous effort into cleaning up our lakes and protecting them from pollution, habitat destruction, loss of native species, and invasions by non-native creatures. Governments at all levels have spent billions of dollars and assigned thousands of people to the task. Businesses and industry have spent similar sums to change products and production methods to reduce their impacts, and to clean up polluted areas. Community groups and non-governmental organizations have played important roles in the restoration of the Great Lakes.

The governments of Canada and the United States want to keep everyone in the Great Lakes area informed about what is happening to the lakes, why it is happening, what is being done to restore and protect them, and how all of us can all reduce our environmental impacts. The federal governments collaborated with state and provincial governments, industry, Tribes and First Nations, and non-governmental organizations in writing this report. It discusses six key indicators of how the lakes are doing. These indicators relate to the questions that people ask most often about the Great Lakes, questions concerning the safety of drinking water and beach water, the edibility of fish, and the health of our fish, birds, and wildlife.

The final section of the report - “What Can You Do to Help?” - suggests some practical ways in which you can help keep our lakes cleaner and healthier. It is hoped that, once you have read this report, you will be inspired to take action to improve our common environment, for our own well-being and as a legacy to our children.

This report draws mainly from the State of the Great Lakes 2003 report, which resulted from the State of the Lakes Ecosystem Conference (SOLEC)¹ process. Data in this report draws on information available at the time of initial publication To view the full State of the Great Lakes 2003 report, visit http://binational.net.

¹SOLEC, first held in 1994, is a biennial meeting of scientists, policy makers, academics, and representatives from industry, business, and non-profit organizations to discuss information on the state of the Great Lakes basin ecosystem, as partial fulfillment of the governments’ responsibility to report under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. Subsequent to the conference, a State of the Great Lakes report is produced.