State of the Great Lakes Reporting

The goal of State of the Great Lakes Reporting process is to report on progress towards achieving the overall purpose of the binational Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement "to restore and maintain the physical, chemical and biological integrity of the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem".

A key component of State of the Great Lakes Reporting is the State of the Lakes Ecosystem Conferences (SOLEC), hosted by the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and Environment Canada (EC) on behalf of the two countries. These conferences are a culmination of scientific information gathered from a wide variety of sources and engage a variety of organizations. The conferences report on the state of the Great Lakes ecosystem and the major factors impacting it, and provide a forum for exchange of this information amongst Great Lakes decision-makers. Another goal of the conference is to provide information to people in all levels of government, corporate, and not-for-profit sectors that make decisions that affect the lakes.

In the year following each conference, the Governments prepare a report on the state of the Great Lakes based in large part upon the conference process. These conferences were held in 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2008. The next conference is planned for 2011 due to a recent change in the reporting cycle.

EC and USEPA will co-host SOLEC 2011 on October 26 and 27 in Erie, Pennsylvania. For more information, visit www.SOLECregistration.ca.

The State of the Great Lakes 2009 Highlights report contains an overall assessment of the status of the Great Lakes ecosystem based on environmental and human health indicators. The ecosystem was assessed as mixed because some conditions or areas were good while others were poor. The trends of the Great Lakes ecosystem components varied as some were improving and some were deteriorating.

The indicators are organized into nine categories within the State of the Great Lakes Highlights report. The categories are Coastal Zones, Aquatic Habitats, Invasive Species, Contamination, Human Health, Biotic Communities, Resource Utilization, Land Use-Land Cover, and Climate Change. Overall assessments and management challenges were prepared for each category. This State of the Great Lakes 2009 Highlights report is derived from a more detailed State of the Great Lakes 2009 report (which contains the full indicator reports). The 2009 Highlights report also includes a summary of information on Nearshore Areas of the Great Lakes.