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State of the Lakes Ecosystem Conference 2000
The governments of Canada and the United States hosted the fourth State of the Lakes Ecosystem Conference (SOLEC) in Hamilton, Ontario, October 17–19, 2000.
SOLEC is a biennial conference to report on the health of the Great Lakes basin ecosystem, as well as reporting on progress towards the goals of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. SOLEC conferences in 1994 and 1996 examined the state of various components of the ecosystem through the use of ad hoc indicators, and provided subjective assessments of certain environmental conditions. At SOLEC 98, a comprehensive suite of 80 Great Lakes ecosystem health indicators was presented for review, refinement and acceptance. A recent Environment Canada publication, the Science and the Environment Bulletin, highlights the work of SOLEC 98.
Environmental management agencies are being asked to demonstrate that past actions have been successful and that future programs will result in measurable environmental improvement. This, and the demand for high quality data, are forcing government and private sector organizations throughout the basin to be more selective and more efficient in the collection and analysis of data. An understanding by stakeholders about what information is necessary and sufficient to characterize the state of Great Lakes ecosystem health (using the suite of indicators) should foster cost-efficient and relevant monitoring programs.
The SOLEC process is a rare opportunity to bring stakeholders together to identify common objectives and data needs, and to encourage cooperative data collection, evaluation and reporting. Unlike previous SOLECs that emphasized the development of core indicators to represent the state of major ecosystem components for the Great Lakes, the focus of SOLEC 2000 will be reporting on 25-30 of the suite of 80 proposed indicators. Future SOLECs will eventually report on all 80 indicators. In addition, SOLEC 2000 will look at implementing indicators and current issues at 3 different scales - the basin-wide scale, the individual lake scale and the local scale.
Final Reports
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State of the Great Lakes 2001 PDF (92 pp., 4.2mb)
Final Reports by Chapter
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State of the Great Lakes 2001 PDF (92 pp., 4.2mb)
Background Papers
- SOLEC 2000 Implementing Indicators - Draft for Review PDF (120 pp., 2.7mb)
- The ABCs of Indicators PDF (8 pp., 2.8mb)
- Selection of Indicators Version 4 PDF (197 pp., 2.7mb)
Background Papers by Chapter
- SOLEC 2000 Implementing Indicators - Draft for Review PDF (120 pp., 2.7mb)
- Selection of Indicators Version 4 PDF (197 pp., 2.7mb)
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SOLEC 2000 Conference Proceedings (PDF (92 pp., 743kb)
Day 1
- Haudenosaunnee (Jacobs) PDF (12 pp., 3.3mb)
- SOLEC History and 10-year Plan (Horvatin) PDF (12 pp., 1.3mb)
- SOLEC Conclusions (Kerr) PDF (4 pp., 259kb)
- Overview of the SOLEC Indicator Process (Shear) PDF (16 pp., 255kb)
- Near shore and Open Water Indictors (Neilson) PDF (30 pp., 2.4mb)
- Land Indicators: Assessing the Effects of Land Use on the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem (Pebbles) PDF (34 pp., 1.1mb)
- Societal Indicators (Lickers) PDF (19 pp., 236kb)
- Overview of Human Health in the Great Lakes Basin (DeRosa) PDF (11 pp., 458kb)
- Human Health: Swimming Advisories (Jimenez) PDF (23 pp., 1.9mb)
- Human Health: Drinking Water (Holme) PDF (29 pp., 1.5mb)
- Human Health: Fish Contaminants Indicator (McCann) PDF (19pp., 680kb)
- Great Lakes Indices: A Concept for Discussion (Bertram) PDF (16pp., 689kb)
- Summary and Charge (Burch) PDF (18pp., 265kb)
Day2
- Hamilton Harbor: A "Success" in the Making (Sproule-Jones) PDF (17pp., 7.5mb)
- The Environmental Farm Plan (Coalit) PDF (13 pp., 289kb)
- Biodiversity Investment Areas Integrations (Reid) PDF (31 pp., 4.8mb)
- Putting Indicators to Use (Stadler-Sal) PDF (13 pp., 444kb)
- Putting Indicators to Use: Hamilton Harbour Remedial Action Plan (Hall) PDF (36 pp., 6.1mb)
- Amphibian and Bird Indicators for Great Lakes Wetlands: The Marsh Monitoring Program (3.3mb) International Alvar Conservation Initiative (Potter/Reid) PDF (32 pp., 5.7mb)
- Putting Indicators to Use: Summary and Charge (Stadler-Salt) PDF (7pp., 1.5mb)
- Carbon Sequestrian and Biodiversity Management Program (Ho) PDF (12 pp., 4.4mb)
- Water: Ours to Protect (1.2mb) Saginaw Bay Watershed Initiative (Bredin) PDF (15 pp., 3.5mb)
- Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council (Ryan) PDF (11 pp., 3.1mb)
- XEROX: Engineering Leadership (Stocum) PDF (12pp., 3.1mb)
- The Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem: Implementing Indictors (Tug) PDF (45 pp., 2.8mb)
SHEMO
Day 3
- Biodiversity and Non-native Species introductions in the St. Lawrence River (573kb) The State of Lake Ontario Lake Trout Rehabilitation (Lange) PDF (25pp., 2.6mb)
- Lake Erie: A Changing Ecosystem (George) PDF (22pp., 3mb)
- St. Clair River-Lake St. Clair-Detroit River Corridor (Johnson) PDF (25pp., 16mb)
- Lake Huron: The Lake in the Middle (Schleen/Bredin) PDF (43pp., 2.7mb)
- Lake Michigan: Lake USA (Beck) PDF (32 pp., 2mb)
- Lake Superior Basin Ecosystem (Piekarz) PDF (35 pp., 2.9mb)
- State of the Lake Michigan Fisheries (Trudeau) PDF (21 pp., 939kb)
- SOLEC 2000 Program Outline PDF (10pp., 85kb)
- Newsletter Day 1 Final PDF (10pp., 122kb)
- BEC SOLEC 10-year Plan PDF (6pp., 58kb)