Lake Ontario Stakeholder webinar to be held on September 11th

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SAVE THE DATE!

 

Lake Ontario Stakeholder Webinar:

Lakewide Management  - Outreach and Engagement

 

Friday, September 11, 2015 

 

2:00 - 4:00 EDT

 ___

Dear Lake Ontario Stakeholders:

 

In early 2013, a revised and updated Canada-U.S. Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement entered into force.  The revised Agreement continues to cover issues such as Areas of Concern, lakewide management, and nutrients, but also covers new issues like invasive species and climate change.  

 

Annex 2 of the revised Agreement is entitled “Lakewide Management” and is intended:

to contribute to the achievement of the General and Specific Objectives of this Agreement by assessing the status of each Great Lake, and by addressing environmental stressors that adversely affect the Waters of the Great Lakes which are best addressed on a lakewide scale through an ecosystem approach.

 

Additionally, Annex 2 requires that the parties develop Lakewide Action and Management Plans (LAMPs) for each Great Lake every five years.

 

John Marsden of Environment Canada and I have the honor of chairing the Annex 2 Subcommittee, and we are pleased to invite you to participate in a binational webinar to be held on Friday, September 11th  from 2:00-4:00 ET where we will:

 

  • provide a brief overview of the Agreement, focusing on Annex 2;
  • provide an update of progress under Annex 2 thus far; and
  • hold an open discussion on the subject of public outreach and engagement with Lake Ontario stakeholders under Annex 2.

 

Public engagement is a key principle of the Agreement, which describes such engagement as incorporating public opinion and advice, as appropriate, and providing information and opportunities for the public to participate in activities that contribute to the achievement of the objectives of this Agreement.  To that end, we invite Lake Ontario stakeholders to an open discussion on the topic of outreach and engagement itself. We look forward to hearing about innovative engagement opportunities and tools as well as proven effective practices that we might consider as we continue our efforts in lakewide management.

 

The specific webinar sign-in information will be provided in the near future.  In the meantime, please feel free to pass this “save the date” notice along to anyone you think may be interested in participating.

 

We welcome any and all Lake Ontario stakeholders (such as NGOs, citizens, academics, etc.) that are interested in Annex 2-related issues to participate in the September 11th  webinar.   (We also encourage interested governmental and agency partners to listen-in, as the webinar capacity will be large enough to handle a large volume of participants.)

 

We hope you can participate!

 

Sincerely,

 

Chris Korleski                     John Marsden

US EPA                                Environment Canada

____________

 

Chris Korleski

Director, Great Lakes National Program Office

United States Environmental Protection Agency, Region 5

77 W. Jackson Blvd (G-17J)

Chicago, IL  60604-3590

(312) 353-2117 (General Office Number)

korleski.christopher@epa.gov