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| Abbreviation | AGL |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1970 |
| Type | Non-governmental organization |
| Headquarters | Chicago, Illinois |
Region served | United States |
| Website | www.greatlakes.org |
Alliance for the Great Lakes is a nonprofit environmental organization formed to conserve and restore the freshwater resources of the Great Lakes through public engagement and policy promotion. [1]
Motivated by nuclear power plants around Lake Michigan and threats to Indiana's sand dunes, an editor of Hyde Park Herald and Openlands Project staff member Lee Botts gathered activists from the four-state region at a conference on April 12, 1969. This was where the participants recommended forming an organization to propose policy solutions for Lake Michigan. During their second conference on May 2, 1970, the organizers announced the formation of the "Lake Michigan Federation," with its formal establishment announced that September. With support from the Chicago Community Trust, Wieboldt Foundation, and others, the group formed a board of directors from Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin, with Lee Botts serving as the first executive director. [2]
The Federation provided citizens with the capacity to monitor compliance with pollution discharge permits, challenged new and existing shoreline power plants, and lobbied for new pollution regulation. [3] In 1971, the Lake Michigan Federation lobbied Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley to ban phosphates in detergents to mitigate excessive algae growth.
The intervening years saw some contraction until the appointment of Glenda Daniel as executive director in 1986. During her tenure, the Lake Michigan Federation opened offices in Muskegon, Milwaukee, and Green Bay. With the U.S. and Canada signing a major amendment to the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement in 1987, which allowed for the creation of "Areas of Concern" (AOCs), the Federation provided support for cleanups in these AOCs. After Daniel's resignation in 1992, the organization contracted, nearly disbanding.
In 1998, the board of directors appointed Cameron Davis to serve as its executive director. Having begun as a volunteer under Botts' tenure and serving as deputy director before leaving to work in environmental litigation, Davis returned to focus on expanding partnerships in various states, including bipartisan outreach to federal, state, and municipal elected officials. In 2003, the Alliance formed the Adopt-a-Beach program, a platform for volunteers to monitor and restore coastlines around the Great Lakes. In 2005, with a unanimous vote of the board of directors, the organization changed its name to the 'Alliance for the Great Lakes' and appointed Davis as its first President and CEO. [3] In 2008, the Alliance received the American Bar Association's Distinguished Achievement Award in Environmental Law and Policy, becoming the first not-for-profit citizen's group to win the award. In 2009, President Barack Obama, who had once represented South Chicago's lakefront district as a state senator, appointed Davis to coordinate federal interdepartmental Great Lakes restoration work. [4]
In December 2009, the board selected Joel Brammeier, the Alliance's vice president for policy, as president and CEO. [5] In 2011, the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition named Brammeier a co-chair, which consists of over 120 organization consortium [6] and campaigned for the establishment of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. [7] Brammeier has advocated for the re-separation of the Chicago Area Waterway System to protect the Great Lakes from invasive species such as Asian carp. [8]
The alliance's reach has extended to Washington, D.C. In 1974, based on Polychlorinated Biphenyls' PCBs' devastating impact in the Great Lakes, the organization led efforts for Congress to ban the chemical through the Toxic Substances Control Act. In 1989, it initiated a lawsuit to prevent the illegal sale of the Lake Michigan lake bottom by the Illinois legislature to a prominent Chicago university. The case "Lake Michigan Federation v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers" is a notable decision under the Public Trust Doctrine, [9] which prohibits the sale of public Great Lakes resources to private entities. [10]
In 2002 and again in 2008, the Alliance, under Davis' leadership, helped write and partnered with business interests and other environmental organizations to pass the Great Lakes Legacy Act, funding Area of Concern cleanups. [11] The Legacy Act became the forerunner to the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, demonstrating that multi-sector collaboration and bipartisan political partnerships could successfully secure large-scale congressional appropriations for ecosystem revitalization. The Alliance also played a key role in authoring and passing the Great Lakes Basin Water Resources Compact, setting water conservation standards, [12] which was signed into law in 2008. [13] Continuing to build its Adopt-a-Beach program, the Alliance emphasized the importance of citizens' involvement. The program now boasts over 10,000 volunteers annually and has initiated data-driven conservation efforts. [14] Volunteers collect and use their own data to implement smoking bans at public beaches and inform decisions on microplastics from cosmetics, which have the potential to harm ecosystem health. [15]
The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario. The Great Lakes Waterway enables modern travel and shipping by water among the lakes. The lakes connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River.
Green Bay is an arm of Lake Michigan, located along the south coast of Michigan's Upper Peninsula and the east coast of Wisconsin. It is separated from the rest of the lake by the Door Peninsula in Wisconsin, the Garden Peninsula in Michigan, and the chain of islands between them, all formed by the Niagara Escarpment. Green Bay is some 120 miles (193 km) long, with a width ranging from about 10 to 20 miles ; it is 1,626 square miles (4,210 km2) in area.
The St. Clair River is a 40.5-mile-long (65.2 km) river in central North America which flows from Lake Huron into Lake St. Clair, forming part of the international boundary between Canada and the United States and between the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Michigan. The river is a significant component in the Great Lakes Waterway, whose shipping channels permit cargo vessels to travel between the upper and lower Great Lakes.
Onondaga Lake is located in Central New York, immediately northwest of and adjacent to Syracuse, New York. The southeastern end of the lake and the southwestern shore abut industrial areas and expressways; the northeastern shore and northwestern end border a series of parks and museums.
The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) is the United States' largest private, nonprofit conservation education and advocacy organization, with over six million members and supporters, and 51 state and territorial affiliated organizations (including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands).
The River Rouge is a 127-mile river in the Metro Detroit area of southeastern Michigan. It flows into the Detroit River at Zug Island, which is the boundary between the cities of River Rouge and Detroit.
The Sierra Nevada Alliance is a network of conservation groups encompassing 24 watersheds of the 650 kilometer-long Sierra Nevada in California and Nevada. Beginning in 1993, the Alliance protects and restores Sierra Nevada lands, watersheds, wildlife and communities.
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is the agency of the state of Michigan founded in 1921, charged with maintaining natural resources such as state parks, state forests, and recreation areas. It is governed by a director appointed by the Governor and accepted by the Natural Resources Commission. Since 2023, the Director is Scott Bowen. The DNR has about 1,400 permanent employees, and over 1,600 seasonal employees.
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE), formerly Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, is a principal department of the U.S. state of Michigan for environmental issues. The department was created in 1995.
Ocean Conservancy is a nonprofit environmental advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., United States. The organization seeks to promote healthy and diverse ocean ecosystems, prevent marine pollution, climate change and advocates against practices that threaten oceanic and human life.
Leila (Lee) Botts was an American environmentalist known primarily for her work related to conservation and restoration of the Great Lakes. She founded two non-profit organizations, directed a subagency of the U.S. Department of the Interior in the administration of President Jimmy Carter, authored or co-authored a number of books and reports on environmental issues, served in the administration of the late Chicago Mayor Harold Washington, and co-produced a documentary film called Shifting Sands: On the Path to Sustainability, on the history of the Indiana Dunes region.
The Conference of Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Governors and Premiers is a North American intergovernmental organization led by the governing chief executives of the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Québec and the US states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Through the organization, they seek to grow the region's economy and protect the Great Lakes. The organization began in 1983 as the Council of Great Lakes Governors to encourage and facilitate environmentally responsible economic development. The Council now serves as secretariat to the governors’ Compact Council and the governor and premiers’ Regional Body.
Chicago Wilderness Alliance is a regional alliance of more than 250 different organizations that work together to improve the quality of life of the individuals and the many other species living in the Chicago (Illinois) area. Through the restoration and sustenation of the biological diversity that once encompassed the lands, their fundamental objective, to preserve the naturally occurring lands and waters in that region, is being made a reality. Through these activities, Chicago Wilderness played a major role in protecting and replenishing the naturally occurring ecosystems in the Chicago area as well as motivating people to become more aware and involved in the preservation of these lands and waters. Chicago Wilderness had continued to blossom through the funding and donations of many sources including private contributions, the member organizations, and state and federal grants.
M. Cameron "Cam" Davis is an environmental policy expert and lawyer, having served in prominent roles in Chicago and Washington, D.C., including the United States Environmental Protection Agency and Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago.
The Philip H. Sheridan Reserve Center is the former Fort Sheridan now in Lake Forest, Highwood, and Highland Park in Lake County, Illinois, United States. It was originally established as a United States Army Post named after Civil War Cavalry General Philip Sheridan, to honor his services to Chicago. When the main fort was officially closed by the Army on May 3, 1993, the majority of the property was sold by the Department of Defense to commercial land developers. Most of the original housing structures were then refurbished and resold as a residential community. Other buildings were given to cultural organizations like Midwest Young Artists, the largest youth music program in the Midwest. Approximately 90 acres (36 ha) of the southern end of the original post were retained by the Army; there the Army now operates the Sheridan Reserve Center complex.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Status and Trends (NS&T) Mussel Watch Program is a water contaminant monitoring program that started in 1986..The program was inspired by Dr. Ed Goldberg at Scripps Institute of Oceanography, but was conceived and designed at a workshop sponsored by NOAA, held at Battelle Ocean Sciences in 1984, and led by Dr. Paul D. Boehm. It is the longest running continuous contaminant monitoring program of its kind in the United States. Mussel Watch monitors the concentration of contaminants in bivalves and sediments in the coastal waters of the U.S., including the Great Lakes, to monitor bivalve health and by extension the health of their local and regional environment.
Asian carp, a group of invasive species of fish introduced into North America, pose a major threat to the ecology, environment, economy, and way of life in the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada. The term refers to a group of cyprinid fish species originally native to East Asia, of which include several are known to be invasive in the United States, and represent the most urgent potential danger to the ecology of the Great Lakes.
Stephen Packard is an American conservationist, author, and ecological restoration practitioner active in the Chicago area.
Valerie Olson van Heest is an American author, explorer, and museum exhibit designer. She is co-founder of the Michigan Shipwreck Research Association.
Friends of the Chicago River is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1979 to improve and restore the 156-mile Chicago River and Calumet River system for all people, water, and animals. Friends of the Chicago River works through education and outreach, on the ground projects, and public policy and planning to achieve their vision that the Chicago-Calumet River system and its watershed are a healthy, climate resilient, biologically rich ecosystem with equitable, open access for all.
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