New Report Urges Restoration to Repair Great Lakes 'Immune System' to Avoid Ecosystem Collapse
Overview
There is widespread agreement that the Great Lakes presently are exhibiting symptoms of extreme stress from a combination of sources that include toxic contaminants, invasive species, nutrient loading, shoreline and upland land use changes, and hydrologic modifications. Many of these sources of stress and others have been impacting the lakes for over a century. These adverse impacts have appeared gradually over time, often in nearshore areas, in the shallower portions of the system, and in specific fish populations. Factors such as the size of the lakes, the time delay between the introduction of stress and subsequent impacts, the temporary recovery of some portions of the ecosystem, and failure to understand the ecosystem-level disruptions caused by the combination of multiple stresses have led to the false assumption that the Great Lakes ecosystem is healthy and resilient.
Because it has taken the Great Lakes four centuries of exposure to these human-induced stresses to get to this point, some argue we have decades to control these and other sources of stress and promote the lakes’ recovery(1). From this perspective, protecting the Great Lakes is not particularly urgent and action can wait until we conduct more studies, while taking small corrective measures when the opportunity or need arises. However, if not addressed with great urgency, the Great Lakes system may experience further – and potentially irreversible – damage.
See: Restoration to Repair Great Lakes - Full Report
(1). Great Lakes Interagency Task Force, Report to the President on the Implementation of the Great Lakes Executive Order, undated.
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