Coordinating "Great Lakes Weeks" and Water Policy Work

Great Lakes United

To engage citizen environmental leaders in communicating priority Great Lakes environmental concerns to key federal agency staff and policymakers.

For more than a decade, Great Lakes United has served as a forum for environmental groups in the United States and Canada to identify common priorities relative to protection of the Great Lakes ecosystem and devise shared approaches for working on those issues. While its membership includes the regional offices of national organizations, groups working at the state and community levels are also included. This blend of organizational members has helped the work of national groups to be informed by the experience of "real people in real communities" and has helped those individuals understand how their issues relate to a broader regional agenda. Two near-term policy discussions have created the need and opportunity for citizen input on matters important to the Great Lakes ecosystem. Funding will enable Great Lakes United to organize events in the capitals of both Canada and the United States that will highlight policy issues of current significance to the Great Lakes ecosystem. In partnership with the Canadian Environmental Law Association, the Canadian Institute for Environmental Law and Policy, the Lake Michigan Federation, the National Wildlife Federation, the Northeast-Midwest Institute and the Sierra Club, "Great Lakes Week" events will be organized in both Washington, D.C., and Ottawa, Ontario. A binational coalition of environmental groups concerned with sustainable water use policies also will be organized.

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