Issues & Action > Great Lakes Restoration Campaign

Who's Who in Great Lakes Restoration

Great Lakes Regional Collaboration
The Interagency Task Force, Council of Great Lakes Governors, Great Lakes Cities Initiative, Native American Tribes, and Great Lakes Congressional Task Force together have convened a collaboration to restore and protect the Great Lakes ecosystem. The Great Lakes Regional Collaboration (GLRC) is a wide-ranging, cooperative effort to design and implement a strategy for the restoration, protection and sustainable use of the Great Lakes.

Great Lakes Commission
The Great Lakes Commission is a binational agency that promotes the orderly, integrated and comprehensive development, use and conservation of the water and related natural resources of the Great Lakes basin and St. Lawrence River. Its members include the eight Great Lakes states with associate member status for the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Québec.

Healing Our Waters - Great Lakes Coalition
>More than 70 organizations representing millions of residents in the Great Lakes have joined a new coalition, whose goal is to restore and protect the Great Lakes. Formed in 2005, the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition reflects a growing public awareness about the urgent need to protect the Great Lakes.

Northeast Midwest Institute
The Northeast-Midwest Institute is a Washington-based, private, non-profit, and non-partisan research organization dedicated to economic vitality, environmental quality, and regional equity for Northeast and Midwest states. The Institute is unique among policy centers because of its ties to Congress through the Northeast-Midwest Congressional and Senate Coalitions. Co-chaired by Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Jack Reed (D-RI), and Reps. Steven LaTourette (R-OH) and Marty Meehan (D-MA), the bipartisan coalitions and their task forces advance federal policies that enhance the region's economy and environment.

The Council of Great Lakes Governors
The Council of Great Lakes Governors is a close non-partisan partnership of the Governors of the eight Great Lakes States - Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. In 1983, the region’s Governors decided to join forces to create the Council and tackle the severe environmental and economic challenges then facing the citizens of their states. In recent years, the Canadian Premiers of Ontario and Quebec have joined with the Council Governors in advancing the high performance economy of the Great Lakes region.

International Joint Commission
The International Joint Commission prevents and resolves disputes between the United States of America and Canada under the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty and pursues the common good of both countries as an independent and objective advisor to the two governments.

Great Lakes Interagency Task Force
Created by an Executive Order from President Bush on May 18, 2004, the Task Force brought together ten U.S. Cabinet and Agency heads to coordinate restoration of the Great Lakes. The Order directed the U.S. EPA Administrator to convene a "regional collaboration of national significance for the Great Lakes." This collaboration process was needed to develop, by consensus, the national restoration and protection action plan for the Great Lakes.