Through the Lakewide Management Annex of the 2012 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, Canada and the United States have committed to:

“… contribute to the achievement of the General and Specific Objective of this Agreement by assessing the status of each Great Lake, and by addressing environmental stressors that adversely affect the Waters of the Great Lakes which are best addressed on a lakewide scale through an ecosystem approach.”

Key Commitments

Canada and the United States agree to:

• Establish Lake Ecosystem Objectives as benchmarks against which to assess status and trends in water quality and lake ecosystem health;
• Assemble, assess and report on existing scientific information concerning the state of the waters of each Great Lake and future potential threats to water quality;
• Identify science priorities for each lake;
• Identify further actions as required to address priority threats to water quality;
• Develop and implement lake-specific binational strategies to address substance objectives, established pursuant to the GLWQA and any other current and future potential threats to water quality that are judged to be best addressed on a lake-by-lake basis;
• By 2016, develop an integrated nearshore framework; and
• Issue a Lakewide Action and Management Plan (LAMP) for each Great Lake once every five years as well as brief annual updates.

Lakewide Action and Management Plans will be prepared in accordance with the GLWQA Annex 2 and issued according to the following schedule:

• 2015: Lake Superior
• 2016: Lake Huron
• 2017: Lake Ontario
• 2018: Lake Erie
• 2019: Lake Michigan

With their geographic focus, the Lakewide Action and Management Plans described in the 2012 Agreement are ideally positioned to support the development and implementation of lake-specific strategies and initiatives called for under other annexes, for example: binational biodiversity conservation strategies (Habitat and Species Annex), Cooperative Science and Monitoring Initiative (Science Annex), and nutrients strategies and action plans (Nutrients Annex).

For additional information on the focus of actions under this Annex, consult the current Priorities for Science and Action 2014-2016. The Priorities are based on an evaluation of the State of the Great Lakes, with input from the Great Lakes Executive Committee, participants at the Great Lakes Public Forum, and recommendations of the International Joint Commission.

Every six months, progress on this annex is reported at the Great Lakes Executive Committee meetings. Accomplishments will be described in the Progress Report of the Parties every three years, with the first expected in 2016.

Implementation

This annex is being implemented by a subcommittee to the Great Lakes Executive Committee, co-led by Environment and Climate Change Canada and the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Member organizations include:

• Chippewa Ottawa Resource Authority
• Conservation Ontario
• Fisheries and Oceans Canada
• Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission
• Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative
• Illinois Department of Natural Resources
• Indiana Department of Natural Resources
• Métis Nation of Ontario
• Michigan Department of Environmental Quality
• Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
• New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
• Ohio Environmental Protection Agency
• Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs
• Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry
• Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change
• Parks Canada
• Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
• United States Army Corps of Engineers
• United States Geological Survey
• Walpole Island First Nation
• Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

An extended subcommittee involves additional organizations and experts beyond the GLEC membership.

As required, time-limited task teams will be created to focus efforts on a priority issue or project, and will be disbanded when work is complete. Currently, the Lakewide Management Annex subcommittee has task teams that focus on: