An ecosystem approach to Great Lakes management: Practical steps

Limited success of past approaches to managing the Great Lakes, and mitigating anthropogenically induced stress, necessitates the adoption of a broader, ecosystem approach. This report is apr outgrowth of a 1994 binational workshop which was convened by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Environment Canada to identify practical steps that could be taken to implement an ecosystem approach to natural resource management and development in the Great Lakes. An ecosystem approach incorporates the interrelationships among land air, wafer, and all living things, including humans, and involves all user groups in comprehensive management. Recent attempts to establish national and international ecosystem-based public policy and management schemes have met with considerable opposition. This opposition is based, in part; on a lack of clarity of terms, theory, and intent in the proposal to apply "ecosystem management. " Despite these uncertainties and lack of detailed understanding, there are several, practical steps that can be implemented immediately. This report presents selected examples of these practical steps for implementing an ecosystem approach in eight sectors, which correspond to the breakout sessions used in the workshop. Selected examples include: providing ecological assessments to landowners for protection and enhancement of unique ecological features; incorporating life cycle assessments into all regulatory and incentive-based initiatives to control point sources; and ensuring that all construction and maintenance projects for structures (e.g., breakwalls, piers) address secondary benefits of incidental habitat. Additional practical steps need to be identified and shared at the working level of watershed and environmental management.