Climate Solutions from the Great Lakes Region

As we explore climate change issues across the country’s coastlines through EESI’s regional coastal resilience briefing series, panelists highlight climate solutions developed everywhere from the most remote communities to large metropolitan areas.

The Great Lakes region, often referred to as America’s third coast, is no exception. As described by Beth Gibbons, Executive Director of the American Society of Adaptation Professionals, the Great Lakes face both challenges and significant opportunities in the era of climate change.

In the city of Marquette, Michigan, leaders highlight the dual realities of climate change for the Great Lakes--”they are preparing for these challenges while also embracing their advantages over places even more vulnerable to climate change.” The Marquette Climate Adaptation Task Force in conjunction with city and county leaders have set in motion projects which employ nature-based solutions to increase resilience to climate change. For example, the city worked with Superior Watershed Partnership to relocate a repeatedly flooded road and to restore the land between the new, inland road and the shoreline. In order to decrease erosion and manage flooding, the city also requires some coastal landowners to maintain vegetated areas along their shoreline.

As communities like Marquette take on adaptation planning and implementation, the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commision is encouraging groups to facilitate culturally-appropriate climate adaptation planning while building partnerships across tribe and non-tribal partners. Their tribal climate adaptation menu, Dibaginjigaadeg Anishinaabe Ezhitwaad, “provides a framework to integrate indigenous and traditional knowledge, culture, language, and history into the climate adaptation planning process.” This menu is a critical tool for communities across the Great Lakes to conduct equitable and inclusive adaptation planning.

While the adaptation menu provides guidance on planning, the Great Lakes Coastal Assembly developed a tool to track the outcomes of projects, such as initiatives in Marquette. Through their Blue Accounting program, the Coastal Assembly has set goals and will measure progress on five issues impacting the Great Lakes: aquatic invasive species, coastal wetlands, phosphorus control, maritime transportation, and drinking water. Wetland restoration is a particularly important climate solution because wetlands protect shorelines from storm surge and erosion and also store carbon.

Phosphorus control is a key issue for the Coastal Assembly because of run-off from agricultural land. Phosphorus causes algal blooms which threaten lake ecosystems and the safety of drinking water. While some methods of agriculture are the source of problems such as excessive phosphorus, many farmers and ranchers are committed to farming methods which promote climate solutions. For example, the Dairy Strong Sustainability Alliance is a farmer-led and industry-supported effort to find solutions on farms to environmental challenges. Panelist Brody Stapel explained that he focuses on cover crops and soil health as a climate solution on his dairy farm. Healthy soils nurtured by cover crops not only store carbon, but also increase his farm’s climate resilience by decreasing erosion and holding more nutrients and water. With farm land on the shore of Lake Michigan, resilience is key to the economic sustainability of Stapel’s farm.

From stabilizing soils to relocating infrastructure, Great Lakes farmers, tribes, communities, and industries are leading efforts to adapt to climate impacts in a way that creates opportunities for the region. 

 

Author: Anna McGinn