GLFT Grant Library

This multi-year grant supported the process to determine the future of four dams on the Boardman River and helped build the capacity of organizations' involvement with the management of the river's watershed.

This workshop assessed adaptation needs for climate change in the Great Lakes region and began the development of strategies for addressing those needs in decision making. The workshop was designed to provide the Great Lakes funding and policy communities with the latest information on climate impacts on the Great Lakes region and at the same time suggest the most fruitful areas to pursue resource management, policy, and science initiatives around Great Lakes adaptation needs.

Protection and rehabilitation of lake sturgeon in the Great Lakes requires an understanding of the relationship among mortality and recruitment factors. As a result, there is a need to identify and quantify the sources of mortality that act on early life stages and determine how they influence lake sturgeon populations. This research will aid recovery efforts for lake sturgeon populations in Lake Michigan by examining these parameters within the context of ongoing and future rehabilitation activities.

The Healing Our Waters® – Great Lakes Coalition used the grant fund for a public education initiative by the Great Lakes’ fastest sailboat: the Earthvoyager. This 60-foot ship, with a 95-foot tall mast, in the summer of 2008l lead a flotilla of ships through the Great Lakes, stopping at ports throughout its journey for publicity generating events that created awareness of the need to restore the Great Lakes.

The project characterized the genetic basis for survival following Renibacterium salmoninarum (Rs) infection in a Lake Michigan population of Chinook (Chk) salmon. Plasticity of Rs survival were evaluated in the presence of a model environmental variable. A second project goal was to validate biomarkers associated with disease prognosis. Results provided insight into the ability of Lake Michigan Chk to respond and adapt to Rs and will form the foundation for future studies aimed at identifying genes.

Lake Michigan's Mid-Lake Reef Complex (MLRC) was a very important spawning area for indigenous lake trout. Techniques developed for a concluding (June 2008) GLFT project demonstrate distinct smaller sub-reefs within each main reef, each with eggs deposited and sac-fry produced, of statistically distinguishable egg deposition densities. This study provided a more complete assessment of the MLRC's total spawning habitat by a targeted search for additional sub-reefs.

This project builds on the recently funded Sturgeon Tag Identification Database, by providing PIT tag reading capabilities to agencies and partners that frequently encounter lake sturgeon. With the increased number of individuals having PIT tag detection capabilities and by using the PIT Tag Identification Database, information sharing will improve for recaptured lake sturgeon.

Diporeia, a critical fish food, has declined in Lake Michigan. Dreissenid-driven changes in algal density and species composition are cited as probable causes, but there may be other reasons. Paleolimnological analysis of the sediment record will document whether a loss of lipid-rich diatoms was associated with the influx of dreissenids. Examination of the diets of Diporeia before and after the dreissenid influx from Lakes Michigan and Superior will confirm or refute mussels as the likely cause of the Diporeia decline.

Working with Lake Michigan fishery managers and key stakeholders, researchers developed an updated decision model to assess the performance of alternative policies for stocking of salmonine fishes into Lake Michigan. They assembled and analyzed data collected since 2002, especially on alewife recruitment dynamics, and collected new data on Chinook salmon wild recruitment, as well as updated the existing model and expanded it to include all stocked salmonine species.

The West Michigan Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative supported the work of 21 teachers and 2,200 students in 10 schools in the region. Seventeen community organizations joined the students and teachers in completing a variety of successful, community-based projects. Professional development for teachers focused on the pedagogy of problem-based learning and inquiry, while capacity-building for community organizations focused on place-based learning and high-performing partnerships with schools. A Youth Environment Symposium (YES!) for the public capped the 2008-09 school year and provided a stage for students to share the results of their work with the community. The hub’s structure features an active advisory council and a committed leadership team that regularly reflects on progress and challenges. The hub used the local media and printed materials to successfully promote its work throughout the region, and kept two other funders appraised of its progress throughout the grant period. This hub applied for and was awarded a continuation grant through the Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative.

The GRAND Learning Network features a formalized professional learning community of teachers, who thoroughly understand place-based education and Great Lakes stewardship and provides leadership to colleagues. Leadership for the Network’s operation also comes from Michigan State University (the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the College of Education and Natural Science), a practicing K-12 teacher, and a Distinguished Advisory Group. The intended audiences are about 2,000 students and 160 K-12 teachers, representing five school districts in the Greater Lansing area (ranging from rural to urban), and about 10 community organizations. A core group of teachers first developed and then shared tools and resources with their colleagues, who in turn worked with their students to carry out place-based education projects of local relevance.

The Lake Superior Stewardship Initiative worked with 46 teachers and their 1,350 students in 11 school buildings (7 districts) during the 2008-09 school year. During the course of the grant period, the number of community partners increased from 13 to 44, including the Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College. An ambitious and well-defined plan of professional development for teachers addressed needs in both content and pedagogy. A wide variety of collaborative, community-based projects were completed through mini-grants awarded by the hub to project teams (comprised of community partners and students, teachers, and administrators from participating schools). The hub made excellent progress in addressing the issue of organizational sustainability: Michigan Technological University and the US Forest Service are requesting funding for the initiative as part of their grant applications to other funders; the hub is working to establish an endowment fund at the local community foundation; and the hub is integrating their work with an existing service learning program. The hub’s organizational structure is sound and features written policies and well-defined roles and responsibilities for all participants. This hub applied for and was awarded a continuation grant through the Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative.

The Southeast Michigan Stewardship Coalition initially engaged eight schools, but two of these left the program early on, owing to external circumstances within their districts. Professional development for teachers in the remaining six schools was conducted throughout the grant period, with 14 educators and their students in two school districts slated to field collaborative, community-based projects. The hub focuses on the interconnectedness of ecological, social and cultural systems, and uses ecojustice to frame issues of local importance. In one school, community-based projects centered on the health of neighborhoods and the remediation of brownfields. In the second school, community-based projects related to watershed revitalization. The hub engaged an impressive variety of community organizations, including Matrix Theater Company, National Wildlife Federation, and the Michigan Coalition of Essential Schools. The leadership of the hub is shared by a team of committed people who represent various stakeholders in the work, including a K-12 school administrator, a faculty member at a university, an active community partner, and an expert in K-12 school reform. This hub applied for and was awarded a continuation grant through the Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative.

This project provides anglers using the Pentwater Pier and the canal access to amenities within Mears State Park via a concrete walkway that connects to a Corps of Engineers walkway spur.

This project provides new recreational fishing access by constructing a fishing pier on Lake Fanny Hooe, which is connected to Lake Superior.

This grant allowed South Haven Township to purchase 2.1 acres to provide access to 170 feet of Lake Michigan frontage and 0.82 acres of wetland and floodplain along Deerlick Creek (a MDNR-designated trout stream and smelt dipping area). This area has been important to fishermen for over 100 years and there was widespread community support for this project. South Haven Township was awarded $1million from Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund (MNRTF).

This project allowed for construction of a new fishing pier and boat dock at the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge Gateway site. The project included construction of an aggregate access road, a boardwalk out into the Detroit River, a floating dock system, and a newly constructed dike providing accessible fishing access to one of the largest walleye fisheries in North America. The GLFT provided the funding for engineering and design of the site.

This project provides increased recreational access to the Great Lakes fishery, including increased access for tribal recreational and subsistence fishing. Universally accessible fishing piers and directional and educational signage were constructed at two optimal locations on Manistee Lake for targeting migratory Great Lakes species and migrating coolwater species. An additional objective of this project was to build upon concurrent planning processes to identify additional prime locations for sites that would provide increased universal access to the Great Lakes fishery in connecting waters throughout Manistee County.

The Sebewaing County Park shore fishing access project provides free, handicapped-accessible shore fishing on three different platforms in the popular County Park at the mouth of the Sebewaing River on Lake Huron. The project included new access to a shore island via a footbridge, bank stabilization, and handicapped-accessible walkways.

The project was intended to provide public access shore-fishing opportunities on the only publicly owned river frontage within the City of Manistique. The project included construction of public access piers on the Manistique River 1,600 feet above the river mouth, utilizing existing shore support facilities at the West Shore Boat Launching Facility, and the installation of three  30-foot-by-24-foot ADA-compliant cantilevered piers paralleling river frontage accessible by boardwalk from the boat launch facility.

The grant provided funds to construct two 6' x 40' cantilevered fishing piers at key locations on the Black River. Both piers are barrier free and accessible by boardwalk and the Kal-Haven Trail in South Haven Township.

The Environment Report, a free environmental news service for public radio stations nationwide, used this grant for the production of eight feature-length radio stories that will educate the public on fishery habitat, fish populations and health, angling access, and the integrity of the Great Lakes ecosystem. The project had an advisory group that was consulted as needed throughout the year and provided post-production evaluative advice for the ongoing direction of projects.

A the largest city in the Upper Peninsula, Marquette (21,977 population) served as the regional hub for most planning activities of the numerous project partners. Marquette is also home to the Superior Watershed Partnership (SWP) and the Marquette Alger Regional Educational Service Agency (MARESA), which jointly coordinated the planning process for this project. MARESA includes 13 regional school districts and is affiliated with Northern Michigan University and the Seaborg Center for Teaching and Learning Science and Mathematics.

This Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative Planning Grant focused on increasing environmental stewardship of the Great Lakes within the Alliances of Rouge Communities and Downriver Communities, which includes 77 municipalities, three major universities, three community college systems, and more than 40 K-12 school districts. Its geographic and programmatic hub was the Environmental Interpretive Center at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.

Alpena-Montmorency-Alcona Educational Service District received a capacity-building grant through the Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative to continue a discussion in the region about how best to promote and support Great Lakes and aquatic educational programs for K-12 students. Grant funds were used to convene the second annual Northeast Michigan Great Lakes and Aquatic Education Networking Meeting in Alpena in November 2007. Thirty-five people (including 11 teachers) representing more than 30 different organizations, affiliations and businesses discussed the need for environmental education leading to stewardship.

This project to plan for place-based stewardship education in the mid-Michigan, Grand River Watershed region engaged schools and community partners from four counties surrounding Lansing (Ingham, Eaton, Clinton and Shiawassee Counties). Five school districts were involved, ranging from urban (Lansing's Cavanaugh and Post Oak Elementary Schools), to a suburban school (Holt), a highly resourced school (Haslett), a rapidly suburbanizing district (Bath), and a rural school (Laingsburg). From August through October 2007, 86 people were convened to plan place-based Great Lakes Stewardship Education. The planning included these phases: 1) a "teacher leader" group of seven teachers involved in place-based stewardship education (PBSE); 2) a "think tank" of youth and their parents who have experienced PBSE; and 3) school-community partnership planning meetings for the region.

The foundation was awarded a capacity-building grant through the Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative to explore how a community interested in pursuing the initiative’s goals and strategies might collaborate with one of the initiative’s regional hubs to develop a “satellite” that serves K-12 teachers, students, and community organizations.

The focus of the study was the River Raisin Watershed, though schools that are adjacent to this watershed were not excluded. The entire watershed is approximately 1,072 square miles and the River Raisin itself is approximately 150 miles long. As of 2000, the watershed was home to 140,000 people.

The Western Upper Peninsula Center for Science, Mathematics and Environmental Education focused its Great Lakes stewardship efforts in the five western counties of Michigan's Upper Peninsula: Houghton, Baraga, Keweenaw, Gogebic, and Ontonagon. The Center worked closely with the other five math/science centers in the Upper Peninsula to share strategies, resources, and professional development opportunities in order to facilitate their future engagement in this effort.
The Western Upper Peninsula encompasses 19 school districts, two intermediate school districts (Copper Country ISD and Gogebic-Ontonagon ISD), and two tribal communities: Keweenaw Bay Indian Community and Lac Vieux Desert Band of Chippewa.

The region serviced by this grant (Muskegon, Oceana, Newaygo, and the northern portion of Ottawa County) is in the southwestern part of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan and encompasses just over one million acres. The 22 public K-12 school districts in the region span the entire urban/rural and rich/poor continuum.

A regional hub promoted a vision of shared stewardship for southeastern Michigan, a 4,602-square-mile region that includes Livingston, Macomb, Monroe, Oakland, St. Clair, Washtenaw, and Wayne Counties.

This grant allowed for the acquisition of approximately five acres of property adjacent to the Bridgeton Township Boat Launch Facility on the Muskegon River to provide for current and future use, access, and safety.

The Lightfoot Bay Wetlands project is a multi-partner effort to secure conservation protection of 214 acres of Great Lakes coastal wetland and fishery habitat including 6,500 feet of wetlands shoreline and a half-mile of Great Lakes shoreline through acquisition and long-term management. The project yields substantive and unique public access, recreation, and educational opportunities.

Although the collapse of Diporeia in the Great Lakes is a well-documented phenomenon, causes for their demise remain unknown. The objectives of this project were three-fold: 1) in the laboratory, characterize metabolite profiles in Diporeia after exposure to environmental stressors using metabolomics; 2) apply these findings to natural populations to aid in the identification of causes for population declines; and 3) evaluate the extent of genetic variation of Diporeia spp. populations in the Great Lakes. 

Western Fisheries Research Center used laboratory challenges to compare the effects of viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV) on important native and introduced Great Lakes species including salmonids (e.g., lake trout, Chinook). New detection tools for water or tissue samples were developed and validated. Nonlethal sampling methods and serological assays were tested. Results and recommendations were presented at workshops. The information and tools from the project are critical to our furthering our understanding of VHSV in the Great Lakes.

The comprehensive genetic database for breeding populations of lake sturgeon collected by researchers was used to identify the natal origin of lake sturgeon collected from river and open-water habitats across the upper Great Lakes. Additional goals incuded identifing occupancy of critical nearshore and open-water habitats, identifing habitat characteristics that facilitate dispersal, and identifing populations at risk from exploitation or from catastrophic natural or anthropogenic events.

Early mortality syndrome (EMS) causes significant fry mortality in salmonine and may limit their abundance in Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Ontario. Biologists have found strong evidence that links EMS to thiamin deficiency in Great Lakes salmonines. Michigan State University's Department of Fisheries and Wildlife induced thiamin deficiency and then analyzed expression of 10K genes in salmonines embryos with a cDNA microarray (gene chip). Biomarkers developed from these experiments are used as a diagnostic of thiamin deficiency in feral fish.

Through a combination of field and laboratory studies, this project sought to evaluate how fatty acid signatures can provide time-integrated and energy-based depictions of food web structure. Researchers developed a fatty acid signature library of available prey for two target species, lake trout and yellow perch, both of which exhibit poor reproductive success in Lake Michigan. They also assessed how changes in nutritional fatty acids, linked to food web changes, can affect reproductive success of both species.

This is a two-year study was aimed at improving understanding of movement patterns and seasonal distributions of lake trout populations in Lake Michigan. Researchers derived effort-corrected and statistically based estimates utilizing existing data from coded-wire-tag (CWT) recoveries. Results from the study aids restoration efforts and helps in achieving management objectives defined in lake trout restoration plans.

University of Notre Dame determined how introduced Pacific salmon affect food web composition, energy flow, and contaminant biotransport in Great Lakes tributary streams. Impacts will be assessed by measuring the responses of algae, macroinvertebrates, and native stream fish to salmon spawners, including the incorporation of nutrients and pollutants transported by salmon. The results of this project helps Great Lakes states and provinces preserve native stream communities that might otherwise be altered by introduced Pacific salmon.

This grant money was given to Kalkaska for Kalkaska County Conservation Easement Transfers.

The Dair Creek Fish Passage Project provided the following habitat and species benefits:
1) full fish passage to brook and brown trout, steelhead, and salmon to 8 miles of heavily forested, coldwater habitat in Dair Creek; 2) restored creek flows to almost a quarter mile of original streambed that has been dry; and 3) prevented additional erosion of the man-made channel due to the current condition of the barrier and the steep embankments that were established when the channel was originally excavated.

This grant supported the following activities and products:
(1) Two teacher professional development institutes were held in Traverse City and Muskegon reaching 29 teachers. The institutes focused on methods for place-based education (PBE) instruction.
(2) A toolkit was developed featuring resources, templates, products, and strategies to help hubs established by the Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative (GLSI) begin and improve their work in the field. A copy of the toolkit is available on the GLFT website.
(3) Consultants expert in fundraising were retained to develop a "case for support" for PBE. A Donor Engagement Guide was developed containing a seven-step process by which new hubs may create their own cases for support for their work. The guide helps hubs clearly describe the PBE philosophy and goals all hubs share, identify their own unique attributes and potential funding sources, and engage different types of funders using creative methods and techniques. The guide is available on the GLFT website.

Through the generosity of the Great Lakes Fishery Trust and matching input from the City of Ecorse, the old, decaying boardwalk at Dingell Park, on the Detroit River, has been completely refurbished, and transformed into the John D. Dingell Riverwalk, thus beautifying the park and allowing greater fishing access for local anglers.

An ADA-accessible walkway was constructed on the Lake Michigan beach in the City of Frankfort. It was constructed in three sections with 8-inch-thick reinforced concrete placed on 6-inch compacted-in-place gravel. Section 1 is 12 feet by 310 feet and extends from Sac Street to the ACOE breakwall. Section 2 is 8 feet by 420 feet and connects the Lake Michigan beach parking area to Section 1 at Sac Street. Section 3 is 8 feet by 175 feet and connects Miami Street to Sac Street. Visitors can access the walkway from four different ADA-compliant points. The site has free parking, restrooms, a footwash station, swingsets, benches, trash receptacles, and educational signage about the dangers of waves and surges along with safety rules associated with the pier.

This project provided barrier-free access to excellent recreational fishing through the construction of a walkway and related facilities to the south pier of Portage Lake on Lake Michigan, a pier maintained by the U.S. Corps of Engineers. As a result of the GLFT-funded project, there is now a 8-foot-by-656-foot barrier-free fishing access/walkway made of reinforced concrete at the site, with a 2-foot wide aggregate shoulder on each side. 2,719 square feet of rip rap was also laid. Disabled parking is available.

This is a multimedia education project, and includes a documentary film on the Great Lakes, a website, museum exhibit, and complementary educational publications.

The project is a book of literary journalism that documents a year spent living on the shores of the Great Lakes. It provides a vivid portrait of a unique, beautiful, and threatened place that is among the greatest natural treasures of the world yet remains poorly understood by most people. In addition to illustrating the qualities that make the Great Lakes unique, the book addresses environmental challenges that have grown more urgent since publication of the author’s award-winning book, The Living Great Lakes (St. Martin’s Press, 2003). The project is finished and should be published in late 2010 or early 2011.

Over the course of three years, Wheelin' Sportsmen NWTF held 10 events that provided angler education, access information, and equipment to 574 children with disabilities in Grand Haven and Muskegon, Michigan.  Participant surveys, administered one year after the event, indicated that 40 percent had never participated in fishing activities before the event, 25 percent did not know before the event that Michigan had barrier-free public fishing opportunities, 62 percent learned new skills and/or stewardship techniques, and 75 percent participated in fishing again following the event.

The Bete Grise Wetlands project was a multi-partner effort to secure conservation protection for 1,875 acres of Great Lakes fishery habitat through land acquisition coupled with a long-term joint management agreement among partner organizations. A combination of USFWS, NOAA, and private funds completed protection of 1,104 acres of the Bete Grise Wetlands, and the Nature Conservancy used this match funding to secure the remaining 771 acres.