The Once and Future Great Lakes Country

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North America’s Great Lakes country has experienced centuries of upheaval. Its landscapes are utterly changed from what they were five hundred years ago. The region’s superabundant fish and wildlife and its magnificent forests and prairies astonished European newcomers who called it an earthly paradise but then ushered in an era of disease, warfare, resource depletion, and land development that transformed it forever.

The Once and Future Great Lakes Country is a history of environmental change in the Great Lakes region, looking as far back as the last ice age, and also reflecting on modern trajectories of change, many of them positive. John Riley chronicles how the region serves as a continental crossroads, one that experienced massive declines in its wildlife and native plants in the centuries after European contact, and has begun to see increased nature protection and re-wilding in recent decades. Yet climate change, globalization, invasive species, and urban sprawl are today exerting new pressures on the region’s ecology.

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NYS Assemblyman Patrick Burke Introduces Great Lakes Bill of Rights

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The bill paves the way for litigation against polluters on behalf of the ecosystem

March 2, 2022

Buffalo, NY – New York State Assemblyman Patrick Burke has introduced legislation that will create a Great Lakes Bill of Rights with the goal of securing legal rights for the entire ecosystem and giving people and nature a role in the decision-making process regarding current and future projects that impact the ecosystem.

The language was drafted with the assistance of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) at the invitation of Assemblyman Burke’s office. CELDF has been at the forefront of Rights of Nature legislation for over 20 years. Beginning with its pioneering work to draft the first law recognizing legal rights for an ecosystem in 2006, CELDF has now partnered with dozens of communities across more than 10 states to enact rights of nature laws.

The Great Lakes Bill of Rights, A3604, recognizes, “that the people and the natural environment, including each ecosystem of the state of New York, shall possess the right to a clean and healthy environment, which shall include the right to clean and healthy Great Lakes and the Great Lakes ecosystem.”

https://nyassembly.gov/mem/Patrick-Burke/story/100976#:~:text=The%20Great%20Lakes%20Bill%20of,and%20the%20Great%20Lakes%20ecosystem.%E2%80%9D

Life & Death of the Great Lakes

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…the Great Lakes were resuscitated after a century’s worth of industrial abuse only to be hit with an even more vexing environmental catastrophe.

Tragically for the Great Lakes, the Clean Water Act helped to lull most of the public into thinking that the lakes…were on their way to recovery throughout the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s. But the law—or more specifically ther agency charged with enforcing it—in fact did unfathomable damage to the lakes. It turned out that the federal regulators decided to exempt one industry’s form of “living pollution”—biologically contaminated watrer discharged from freighters.

This led to an explosion of invasive species, most notably Zebra and Quagga mussels that in less than 20 years became the lakes’ dominant species.

—Dan Egan, The Death & Life of the Great Lakes (2017).

CLGR Foundation

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Council of the Great Lakes Region Foundation

https://cglrfoundation.networkforgood.com/

https://cglrfoundation.networkforgood.com/projects/194658-sustainable-food-production-in-the-great-lakes-region?

The CGLR Foundation is a qualified 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and contributions are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law. If you are located outside of the United States, please check with your tax advisor for guidance.

The Foundation is a part of a bi-national network of related organizations, collectively referred to as the Council of the Great Lakes Region (CGLR), which includes CGLR USA, an Ohio-based, 501(c)(6) trade association, and CGLR Canada, a not-for-profit corporation based in Ontario, Canada.

Let’s keep the Great Lakes free of plastic litter!

Help us Accelerate the Shift to Sustainable Farming in the Great Lakes Region

Sustainable food production is great for farmers and the health of our Great Lakes and environment!

Agriculture is a primary land use in the Great Lakes region, holding the key ingredients for feeding not only the region – but also North America and the world.

However, as the demand for more foods grown in our region increases, so will the pressures on our environment, such as our freshwater and wildlife.

For example, agricultural nutrients flowing into Lake Erie are already causing toxic blue-green algae blooms, killing fish and polluting our drinking water.

By donating today, you can build a better future by helping us bring businesses, government representatives, scientists, and NGOs together to advocate for and invest in sustainable agricultural practices.

Updated 6/21/2023

The Council of the Great Lakes Region

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Membership is $150 for an individual, $350 for a nonprofit organization.

The Council of the Great Lakes Region is a binational, non-profit corporation that seeks to deepen the United States-Canada relationship in the Great Lakes region by creating stronger, more dynamic cross-border collaborations focused on finding new ways of harnessing the region’s economic strengths and assets, improving the well-being and prosperity of the region’s citizens, and protecting the environment for future generations.

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