Great Lakes Restoration Initiative
Michigan and other land conservancies throughout the Great Lakes successfully made the case for permanent land acquisition and protection agreements as one restoration strategy in the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative’s (GLRI) Action Plan.
February 23, 2010
By GLRI
greatlakesrestoration.us/?p=445Michigan and other land conservancies throughout the Great Lakes successfully made the case for permanent land acquisition and protection agreements as one restoration strategy in the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative’s (GLRI) Action Plan. The Action Plan is the framework for determining how federal dollars will be spent over the five years of the GLRI to “help protect and restore the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the Great Lakes Basin ecosystem.” Noting that permanent land protection was not part of the definition of “restoration” in previous drafts of the Action Plan and questioning the efficacy of GLRI investments without it, conservancies called on the Environmental Protection Agency to revise the definition. Under the new definition in the final document released on February 22, restoration now includes acquisition of land and easements as part of ecological protection, provided those acquisition actions are accompanied by appropriate stewardship and management. This change in language may open the door for new opportunities to use GLRI funds for permanent land protection that meets the goals of the Initiative.
Leading the call for changes included the Leelanau Conservancy and other members of the Michigan Dune Alliance (Chikaming Open Lands, Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy, Land Conservancy of West Michigan, Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy, Little Traverse Conservancy), Legacy Land Conservancy, Saginaw Basin Land Conservancy, Heart of the Lakes Center for Land Conservation Policy, and the Land Trust Alliance, which rounded up signatures from over 30 land trusts in the Great Lakes Basin.
