Meeting participants agreed to move the partnership forward to gain national partnership recognition by the National Fish Habitat Action Plan Board. 

The Great Lakes are significant for many reasons to both the U.S. and Canada.  Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario form the largest surface freshwater system on the Earth.  The Basin is home to 10 percent of the population of the U.S., with over 30 million people relying on the world’s largest surface freshwater system.  It also supports a large fishery that provides important commercial and recreational fishing.  More than 300 species of fish and other aquatic organisms inhabit the rivers, streams, and coastal areas of the Basin and depend on these habitats during critical life-history stages.  

The Great Lakes’ significance and need for protection and restoration has resulted in several initiatives to restore the health of the Great Lakes by the U.S. and Canada, states and provinces.  Most of these initiatives, such as the Great Lakes Compact, the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration, and the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, have focused on water quality and quantity, but not fish habitat specifically.  The Great Lakes Fish Habitat Partnership’s reason for being is to work with these other initiatives, yet focus on the need to restore and protect fish habitat for faltering fish populations.

The next steps for the Great Lakes Basin Fish Habitat Partnership are to draft an MOU and begin working on a strategic plan that will create the intellectual framework for advancing on-the-ground protection and restoration by complementing existing Great Lakes initiatives.

The Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Geological Survey acted as staff for the effort, setting up the steering committee and making all arrangements for the meeting.  The meeting was facilitated by Mark Coscarelli of Public Sector Consultants.