Great Lakes, Great Protected Areas

The Great Lakes are uniquely important to the environmental, social, and economic well-being of Canada, the U.S., and the Indigenous nations within its watershed.  They are the world’s largest freshwater ecosystem and provide habitat for thousands of native species including 279 globally rare plants, animals, and natural communities.

More than 35 million people in Canada and the U.S. depend on the Great Lakes for drinking water, jobs, and recreation. A far greater number rely on these waters for power generation, shipping, fisheries, and agriculture. This economic engine makes the Great Lakes region the third largest economy in the world.  

But the watershed is fragile and faces serious threats from invasive species, pollution, water diversion, wetland destruction, and climate change. Only by building partnerships and collaborations across governments, communities, Indigenous peoples, non-governmental organizations and the private sector, will it be possible tackle these and other cross-boundary management challenges. 

In the last century, the Great Lakes have experienced deteriorating water quality caused by industrial, agricultural, and municipal uses, fluctuating water levels, flooding, shoreline erosion, and climate change. While programs and regulations on both sides of the border have improved lake health in some areas, overall water quality in the Great Lakes remains at risk. 

The  Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement  is a commitment between the United States and Canada to restore and protect the waters of the Great Lakes—specifically their chemical, physical, and biological integrity. The Agreement provides a framework for identifying binational priorities and implementing actions.

Climate change effects – warmer air and water, increased precipitation, and extreme weather—are causing significant and far-reaching impacts on Great Lakes ecosystems as well as on human infrastructure and activities within the watershed. 

Protected areas are critical to climate change response, playing a role in mitigation and in adaptation through nature-based solutions.

Ecological restoration—both on large and local scales—is a critical tool for biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. Restoration focuses on interventions that re-establish self-generating processes to improve water quality, habitat, and essential flow patterns. In the Great Lakes Basin, interventions may include physical restoration of freshwater habitats through bank stabilization, re-establishment of channel morphology, wetland restoration and removal of invasive species.  

Ecological restoration is uniquely valuable in that it empowers people to contribute in a concrete way towards positive environmental outcomes. These outcomes include increased biodiversity, improved water quality, more productive fisheries, improved water level control, and other benefits to local communities. 

Accurately mapping Great Lakes habitats and biodiversity is essential for assessing the vulnerability and threats to lake-dependent organisms, identifying potential overlap and information gaps, and for prioritizing conservation efforts. But challenges remain in collecting and providing reliable data at a scale that is useful to agencies and organizations responsible for managing and protecting Great Lakes ecosystems. 

 GLANSIS  serves as the Laurentian Great Lakes' "one-stop shop" for information on aquatic nonindigenous species (ANS). The site provides the best available information to limit the introduction, spread, and impact of ANS in the Great Lakes. Tools include species profiles, a list of invaders, a mapping tool, risk assessments, and more. 

 GLAHF  is a comprehensive resource for Great Lakes ecological data. It offers a hierarchical spatial framework with unique identifiers that link to a comprehensive database; a spatial database that consists of available ecological data for the entire Great Lakes basin an integrated river-watershed network – the Great Lakes Hydrography Dataset; a hierarchical environmental classification that identifies unique aquatic units across the basin; and visualization tools & maps including a web-based, publicly accessible geospatial map viewer and decision support tool.

This ambitious partnership of 13 global conservation organizations helps prevent biodiversity loss by supporting nationally led efforts to identify  Key Biodiversity Areas —places critical for the survival of unique plants and animals and their ecological communities. Mapping these sites allows stakeholders to make informed management decisions about those areas.

Data on fishing regulations throughout the Great Lakes region is essential for understanding how protected areas manage extraction of living resources. However, regulators are scattered across geography, agencies, and various levels of government so approaches to fishing regulations vary widely across the Great Lakes Basin. 

 UNESCO  and the  International Council on Monuments and Sites  have championed underwater heritage sites since the mid-20th century. In 1972, the United States National Marine Sanctuary Act authorized NOAA to establish and protect marine areas of “national importance.” Since that time, national governments, international bodies, and local agencies and organizations have taken action to protect the world’s underwater heritage sites. 

In the Great Lakes, underwater sites reflect a cultural landscape that spans thousands of years—from the region’s first peoples who lived here around 12,000 years ago to the mariners and of the early 20th century. Many of these sites have yet to be accurately mapped and protected.

In the Great Lakes, archaeological discoveries and Indigenous histories reveal that people have lived near the lakeshores for the last 12,000 years. Researchers in Lake Huron have found archeological evidence of structures believed to be hunting pits, camps, caribou drive lanes and stone piles. These structures were constructed around 9,000 years ago, when lake levels were low enough to expose the narrow bridge of land.  

Within the Great Lakes Basin, the 4500-year-old Mnjikaning fishing weirs, at the narrows between Lake Simcoe and Lake Couchiching (between Georgian Bay and Lake Ontario), also reflect the underwater legacy of the region’s earliest peoples. Today, this traditional meeting place is a Canadian National Historic Site and is protected by the members of the Chippewas of Rama First Nation’s “Fish Fence Circle.”

There are over 6,000 shipwrecks in the Great Lakes, each one a valuable snapshot of time, place and people. Worldwide, underwater parks, preserves, and sanctuaries protect shipwrecks, but few sanctuaries protect those on the Great Lakes. While some jurisdictions protect individual shipwrecks, only the  Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary  on Lake Michigan provides sweeping protection for a significant collection of ships. 

Located in Michigan, on northwestern Lake Huron, Thunder Bay borders one of the most treacherous stretches of water within the Great Lakes system, earning it the name "Shipwreck Alley." Today, the 11,137 square kilometer Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary protects one of America's best-preserved and nationally-significant collections of shipwrecks. From an 1844 sidewheel steamer to a modern 152..4 meter-long German freighter, these wrecks represent a microcosm of maritime commerce and travel on the Great Lakes.

NOAA has proposed several Great Lakes marine heritage sanctuaries including:  

 Lake Ontario National Marine Sanctuary  - Located on the New York side of eastern Lake Ontario, this 4400 square kilometer area contains at least twenty-one shipwrecks and one military aircraft representing events spanning more than 200 years of U.S. history, including the HMS Ontario, which is both the oldest confirmed shipwreck in the United States and the only fully intact British warship discovered in the Great Lakes.

 Wisconsin-Lake Michigan National Marine Sanctuary  - This proposed 2,491 square kilometer sanctuary in Lake Michigan would protect 36 shipwrecks of exceptional historic, archaeological, and recreational value. Historical research suggests that nearly 60 shipwrecks are yet to be discovered in the sanctuary.

The interactive map below highlights some of the valuable datasets referenced throughout this story map, as well as a range of other resources available to help the GLPAN community and others make more informed decisions. Explore the map to learn more about the amazing work the GLPAN community and all it's partners are doing to help protect and conserve the natural resources in and around the Great Lakes.

There are many data resources available for the Great Lakes Basin in various formats. The Great Lakes Commission provides a  large collection of downloadable GIS layers  for the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River.

“The greatest conservation success story in the 21st century is the exponential growth of protected areas–a primary defence mechanism against Earth’s biodiversity loss.” – Earth.org

The future of Great Lakes ecosystems depends on the open exchange of ideas and information across agencies and borders. As important as they are individually, protected areas are most effective when integrated into a larger and more coordinated conservation framework. This is especially important in the Great Lakes Basin where management spans two nations and a multitude of management bodies on both sides of the border. 

We envision a future where Great Lakes scientists, stakeholders, and management authorities exchange information, collaborate, and strategically plan new protected areas in order to form a comprehensive network of protection for the Great Lakes. 

This GLPAN portal is merely the first step towards that vision. Continuing to grow and strengthen the network will enable the development of more comprehensive action and management plans, conservation strategies, and other coordinated activities necessary to ensure the environmental health of the Great Lakes.