2010 Numbers
- $255M in EPA funds to 16 federal
- agencies
- $163M in EPA funding to 286 grants
- $42M in grants to local governments
- $54M in grants to state governments
- $30M in grants to non-profits
- $32M in grants to universities
- $5M in grants to tribes
Funded Projects
EPA 2011 Grants
Information about the 2011 GLRI grants awarded by EPA. Individual grants will be awarded over a period of several weeks, beginning in August 2011. As more grants are awarded, they will be added to the table.
Great Lakes Accountability System (GLAS)
GLAS is an easy way to learn more about the work underway:
- Who's receiving money
- What they're doing with it
- How it accomplishes the goals set in the GLRI action plan
Highlights
In its first year, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funded hundreds of projects in communities across the Great Lakes basin.
GLRI Grants Help Keep Chicago Beaches Open
Swim bans at Chicago beaches are at a five-year low. Water quality at Chicago's beaches is improving, partly due to EPA Great Lakes Restoration Initiative grants to the Chicago Park District. Innovative work includes gull-management techniques (including bird-chasing border collies, like in the photo) and efforts to educate beachgoers about how to keep the sand and water clean. Other projects allow beach managers to identify and reduce beach contamination so that beaches are safe for recreation more of the season.
Fordson Island Rids its Banks of Abandoned Boats
Fordson Island, located on the Rouge River near Detroit, is the site of a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration restoration project starting this summer. Volunteers are working to remove junk boats and other debris from the island's banks in order to create a new site for recreation and wildlife. The effort is funded by a $150,000 GLRI grant.
Farm Bill Programs for Reducing Ag Nonpoint Source Loading
The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service is accepting applications from people needing financial or technical assistance to help them fix non-point source and wildlife related problems on private lands across the midwest.
Hiawatha National Forest Central Upper Peninsula Cooperative Weed Management Area
This CWMA project provides non-native invasive plant education and public outreach, as well as inventory, monitoring, mapping, and treatment of invasives. The project will have long-lasting impacts to early detection and rapid response networks.
Potential Great Lakes Aquatic Invasive Species Watchlist Now Available!
The Great Lakes Nonindigenous Species Information System received funding under the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative for several improvements, including the now available watchlist of 52 nonindigenous species with the highest probability of invading the Great Lakes. The list will help scientists respond more quickly to invasive species by knowing what to look for.
The second mass marking season for the Great Lakes is currently underway
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Green Bay Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office will travel to four states and eight state fish hatcheries to code-wire tag and fin-clip millions of Chinook salmon for stocking in the Great Lakes. Through the Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Restoration Act grant program, $2.6 million in GLRI funds were used to purchase two automated coded-wire tagging trailers. Each trailer is capable of marking up to 60,000 fish in a single eight-hour day.
Lake Sturgeon Streamside Rearing Unit Deployed
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Genoa National Fish Hatchery has deployed a sturgeon streamside rearing unit purchased with GLRI funding. The unit was placed on the Kalamazoo River on a site prepared by the Michigan DNR. Lake sturgeon survival is low due to heavy predation, water pollution and habitat destruction. A streamside rearing unit helps control some of these pressures until the fish are large enough to survive. The unit also uses water from the sturgeon's birth river, which should allow the sturgeon to locate this same river when they are old enough to reproduce, some 15-20 years later.
Wabash River Asian Carp Interim Fence Completed
Indiana Department of Natural Resources, with $640,000 in GLRI funding from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, completed an interim barrier in a matter of months and under-budget. The interim barrier reduces the risk of adult Asian carp from moving from Indiana's Wabash River system into Ohio's Maumee River, a tributary to Lake Erie. Though the Wabash and Maumee basins drain in opposite directions, their waters can connect under certain flood conditions in Eagle Marsh, a 705-acre restored wetland near Fort Wayne.
2011 Sampling to Identify Contaminants of Emerging Concern
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, working in collaboration with EPA, USGS and state partners, recently collected sediment, water and fish samples on the St. Louis River in Duluth. GLRI funding is being used to refine what is known about the locations, concentrations and potential adverse impacts of new contaminants, such as pharmaceuticals, to fish and wildlife. Sampling activities will continue through the spring and early summer at sites throughout the Great Lakes.
GLRI Task Force
- Council on Environmental Quality
- Department of Agriculture
- Department of Commerce
- Department of Defense
- Department of Health and Human Services
- Department of Homeland Security
- Department of Housing and Urban Development
- Department of the Interior
- Department of State
- Department of Transportation
- Environmental Protection Agency