OGL Great Lakes Note: Lake Superior Partnership Announces finalized LAMP

Lake Superior Partnership Announces Finalized LAMP

Lakewide Action Management Plan outlines work to protect & restore ecosystem

 

It is hard to overstate the tremendous size and unique value of Lake Superior. The lake’s deep, frigid basin holds 10 percent of the entire world’s fresh surface water. The resource-rich system is cared for in partnership by representatives from federal, state, provincial and tribal agencies and their partners from both the United States and Canada.

 

The Lake Superior Partnership works to develop and implement a LAMP, or Lakewide Action Management Plan, every five years to protect the ecosystem from threats and define actions to restore its vitality. This new, finalized LAMP fulfills requirements of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement set to ensure quality water resources by documenting current environmental conditions, threats to the ecosystem, research priorities, lakewide objectives, and necessary actions and projects to achieve those objectives. The LAMP provides that Superior’s overall ecosystem is healthy, but faces threats from aquatic invasive species, emerging contaminants, climate change, and habitat loss.

 

The Lake Superior LAMP identifies 74 management actions to be completed through 29 projects to address threats to water quality and achieve lakewide objectives. They include educational campaigns, storm water management projects, green infrastructure installation, habitat restoration, and outreach on evolving topics including microplastics and chemical contaminants, grouped into the following focus areas:

 

·         Aquatic invasive species

·         Climate change

·         Dams and barriers

·         Existing chemicals of concern

·         Additional substances of concern

·         Other threats, including resource development

·         High-quality habitats

·         Native species management