Farmers in India face water shortages.  California expects record dry year.  Exploding populations in Florida pinch state’s water supply. 

The headlines are everywhere.  Earth’s freshwater supply is running out. 

The news may be easy to ignore for those with backyard access to the world’s largest group of freshwater lakes. With all that fresh water around, regional residents should have nothing to worry about, right?  Well, as it turns out, others have taken notice of this enormous freshwater reserve and they’d like to dip a ladle into it, too.    

Water Woes

Replenishing the Colorado River with Great Lakes water?  Shipping Lake Superior water to Asia?  These were the warning sirens for Sam Speck, chair of the Council of Great Lakes Governors and Premiers Water Management Working Group from 2001-2005, and former trustee of The Nature Conservancy in Ohio.

“The Ontario government approved water exports to the Orient at a time when the water level in the Great Lakes already was low,” Speck says. 

It was in response to threats like this that the Council of Great Lakes Governors and Premiers began in 2001 to draft language for the United States’ Great Lakes Compact and a parallel agreement between eight Great Lakes states and Ontario and Quebec. 

“The Compact sets basic, consistent standards to review proposed water usages,” Speck says.  “It’s not just about prohibiting diversions outside the basin, but wise water use within as well.” 

Seven years later, the binational agreement is in place, and the Compact has been approved by all eight states and Congress, and was signed by President Bush in October 2008.  These actions establish water withdrawal principles and ensure that authority over the lakes’ waters remains in the Great Lakes Basin.

“It’s going to be really important over time, as we look at threats like climate change, to protect and conserve water,” Speck says.  “It’s not so much about economic advantage, but protection of the resource.”

Breaking Down Regional Barriers

Building on the momentum and cooperative spirit of the Great Lakes Compact,The Nature Conservancy recently launched an unprecedented regional collaboration - comprised of scientists, policy experts and leaders – whose goal is help make the Great Lakes among the best-managed ecosystems in the world. 

“We’re at a critical juncture,” says Marleen Kromer, the Conservancy’s conservation director for Great Lakes programs in Ohio, who attended the group’s historic gathering in June.  “In order to really affect the future of conservation in the region we have to immediately focus in on those threats that, as an organization, we can best abate and work across state and national boundaries to do so.” 

Not Just for the Birds

One example of this tactical approach is the Conservancy’s recently developed migratory bird plan for the basin, which addresses habitat needs and shoreline natural areas. 

“We needed to determine which areas still supported strong migratory bird populations,” Kromer says.  “So we worked with regional migratory bird experts and identified remaining hotspots.”

In addition to pinpointing migratory bird strongholds, the study defined habitat characteristics that are key in supporting healthy populations and water quality flowing into the lake.  The findings will help guide and focus the Conservancy’s protection efforts in the region. 

“Now we’ve got a viable game plan,” Kromer says. 

It’s this kind of basin-wide solution to the region’s threats that has Speck hopeful the Great Lakes Compact will have far-reaching effects.

“There were a lot of issues we weren’t certain we’d surmount,” says Speck, of the Compact’s lengthy ratification process.  “But it was never a partisan issue, and from the beginning the Great Lakes Governors were behind it.”

And while Speck says that compromise wasn’t reached over lunch, he’s confident that, ultimately, it’s group buy-in that will give the Compact the teeth it needs to influence conservation within the region, and possibly even beyond. 

“This has the potential to be used as a model in other parts of the world.”

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Mark Godfrey  (Sunset at Split Rock Lighthouse State Park, located on Minnesota's North Shore, Lake Superior.); Photo © Mark Godfrey (Kayakers set off along the Lake Superior shoreline of Isle Royale National Park, Isle Royale.); Mark Godfrey (Flowers and rocky coast of Lake Superior on Isle Royale National Park located off Minnesota's North Shore.).