Nearly $20 Million Recommended for GLRI

NOAA Fisheries is recommending nearly $20 million in Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) funding.

It will support new and existing multi-year partnerships to implement seven projects to restore shoreline, fish passage, and wetlands. These efforts will restore habitat and improve resilience in degraded Great Lakes ecosystems.

Specifically, recommended projects will open river systems to fish passage, reconnect rivers to their floodplains, and restore and enhance river, stream, and wetland habitats.

Several recommended projects will contribute to ongoing activities to restore “toxic hotspots” known as Areas of Concern within the Great Lakes basin.

Continued Efforts

Friends of the Detroit River will continue to partner with NOAA on a suite of habitat restoration projects within the Detroit River Area of Concern. In partnership with NOAA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Friends of the Detroit River will begin restoration of Sugar Island, part of the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge. Funding will also support ongoing work at Lake Okonoka on Belle Isle. ($12,422,115)

The Great Lakes Commission will continue to partner with NOAA to implement several habitat restoration projects that benefit native fisheries. In the second year of the partnership, the Great Lakes Commission will continue to work on restoration projects in Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River. ($788,695)

The Huron Pines Resource Conservation and Development Council will continue work to remove several fish passage barriers in northern lower Michigan identified as high-priority for restoration. The projects will collectively address one of the most significant issues threatening Great Lakes fisheries: habitat fragmentation in coldwater river systems. ($734,968)

The Watershed Center Grand Traverse Bay will continue work on the large-scale project to restore Kids Creek in the Grand Traverse Bay watershed. This project will help restore natural stream function to the creek by replacing three undersized culverts that are restricting fish passage. ($1,540,946)