Kaniatarowanenneh (St. Lawrence River) holds immense significance for Akwesasronon (Akwesasne Community Members), shaping their history and identity. Over time, however, the river and community faced environmental challenges from the development of the seaway and hydropower dam. The developments attracted heavy industry to area for cheap energy and shipping access, causing environmental contaminants (PCB, mercury, etc.) and adversely affecting the health and culture of Akwesasronon. This environmental violence generated a fearful relationship between the community and river, eroding cultural knowledge, language, teachings, and practices. This fear, combined with a forced assimilationist history, distanced the people from the environment, disrupting the fulfillment of reciprocal roles defined by the Ohenton Karihwatehkwen (Words Before All Else).
Akwesasne struggles with shoreline erosion, prompting Akwesasronon shoreline owners to harden their shorelines. A shoreline assessment was developed and framed in the Ohenton Karihwatehkwen to be applied to interested shoreline owners. Semi-structured interviews conducted will help gauge owners’ understanding of shorelines and cultural knowledge. Integrating quantitative and qualitative information will inform shoreline restoration plans, fostering naturalized shorelines that evoke communal and individual responsibilities to creation – an act of decolonization. Embracing a decolonial approach, the project draws from Linda Tuhiwai Smith's critique of research and aligns with Tuck and Yang's affirmation that decolonization is not a metaphor. The hypothesis is that strengthening Akwesasronon relationship with creation through their biocultural context improves shoreline health and cultural knowledge reclamation.
Conservation and restoration practitioners are asked to consider the role of Indigenous Knowledges in environmental policies and decision-making. We examine the responsibilities of Haudenosaunee and settler societies in this new endeavor within the context of Great Lakes.
Climate change impacts coastal communities through flooding, storm surge, extreme weather (including drought), and sea level rise. These hazards may lead communities to relocate away from the coasts. Conversely, researchers have identified some areas of the United States, such as the Great Lakes, as receiving areas of these potential climate migrants due to the unique attributes of their communities. Despite reference to the link between climate change and human mobility (displacement, migration, planned relocation), there is a dearth of knowledge on how shifts in population patterns intersect with underlying socioeconomic, cultural, political, and environmental processes. Other factors still appear to be more controlling in the decision to move. Resources often enable or constrain the ability of communities to relocate. Programs to empower communities to make decisions on relocation are lacking.
New York Sea Grant (NYSG) and other Sea Grant programs received funding from the National Science Foundation to develop a Research Coordination Network. The project named People on the Move in a Changing Climate (PEMOCC) will provide the scientific infrastructure that is required to conduct place-based, use-inspired collaborative research on climate-induced human mobility, and regionally tailored educational and engagement strategies.
In June 2022, NYSG hosted and co-facilitated a PEMOCC workshop for the Great Lakes region in Buffalo, NY. Fifty participants from across the Basin states attended. The goals were to feature the current state of knowledge on climate-induced human mobility, provide local/regional case studies, and address the unique needs of underserved and underrepresented coastal communities. A follow-up meeting will be held in Corvallis, Oregon in September of 2024. This talk will review the findings of both workshop and engage the audience to think about steps to address the findings in order to increase resilience.
While the physical complexity of Michigan’s coastal dynamics has increased due to climate change and other factors, most notably because of more rapid variability in Great Lakes water levels as well as increased precipitation and storm intensity, the ability of local resource managers to respond efficiently and effectively has not kept pace. Therefore, decisions that have long-term impacts on shoreline are often made under duress without the ability and capacity to critically assess impacts and sustainability. During the most recent high water period (e.g., 2019/2020), many local decision makers began approving or directly implementing measures relating to stormwater management and shoreline armoring. However, these decisions were often made without complete or accurate information since many communities face barriers in assessing risk and costs, choosing appropriate projects, obtaining funding, implementing plans, and collaborating with other coastal communities as well as state and federal agencies. Currently, the unprecedented level of federal investment is combining with water levels hovering near historic averages to create a critical window for action to build capacity and knowledge while undertaking innovative projects.
Under these conditions, we assessed the opportunities, barriers and needs for Michigan’s coastal managers to adopt collaborative and effective resilience practices. Specifically, Michigan Sea Grant (MISG) sought to better understand how to engage with communities and to identify and support specific needs. First, we interviewed individuals from the Great Lakes Sea Grant Network (GLSGN) to learn how their programs conducted outreach and worked in communities as well as what were best practices or barriers. We then organized a workshop for over 50 coastal resilience managers and experts to identify significant barriers to coastal resilience planning and to outline potential solutions, emphasizing nature-based approaches. The proposed presentation would relay the results in terms of barriers and needs as well as the strategy and tactics to meet these needs, including the launch of a new online resource hub and several communities of practice.
In 2016 the Little Calumet River Conservation Collaborative began planning for habitat restoration, stewardship, and community engagement across a 10-mile stretch of the West Branch of the Little Calumet River in Northwest Indiana. Using a robust spatial prioritization and secretive marsh bird monitoring as an indicator for overall wetland health, the Collaborative identified over 1,400 acres of priority habitat to be restored, contributing to local efforts to build a more climate-resilient Calumet region. Relationships were then carefully built with City of Gary officials and the Little Calumet River Basin Development Commission, two of the major landowners across the floodplain basin.
Since 2019, the Collaborative has been conducting on-the-ground restoration across 400 acres. In 2023, water control structures were installed at two of these sites, allowing for strategic water level management to minimize invasive plant species and allow for the recovery of marsh vegetative communities.
Community engagement, especially in Gary, Indiana, has been prioritized and will soon reach new depths thanks to two federal grants to conduct engineering and design across 1,100 new acres, including potential remeandering of the Little Calumet River. Input from local residents will help guide and be incorporated into the site’s restoration plans to center the needs of the surrounding underserved communities.
This presentation will aim to detail the complexities and need for community-centered conservation, especially in Environmental Justice communities like Gary, Indiana and many others across the Great Lakes basin.
The Day in the Life of Lake Ontario- St. Lawrence River project, with funding from the US EPA Great Lakes National Program Office, by training teachers and educators, providing equipment and stipends to teachers, and coordinating student summit events in support of New York’s Great Lakes Ecosystem Education Exchange and New York’s Great Lakes Action Agenda. The development of lesson plans, activity instructions and classroom resources integrated the 9 objectives of the Lake Ontario Lake wide Action and Management Plan, which include safe drinking water, being free nutrients that promote nuisance algae, being free from harmful pollutants, safe swimming beaches, allowing for fish and wildlife consumption, providing healthy habitats for native species, being free from invasive species, being free from harmful groundwater contamination, and being free from other negative effects, such as climate change. Teachers and educators also learned about research being conducted under the Cooperative Science and Monitoring Initiative to understand lake wide conditions. Environmental education outcomes of this 2 year project included: engaging 12 teachers and 25 education partners in a one-day training workshop, providing 10 teachers with equipment bins that they can use with classes beyond the project funding, and engaging 684 students in hands on learning about the Lake Ontario- St. Lawrence River ecosystem to build sense of place and promote stewardship. Monitoring data collected by students at 6 sites under an EPA and DEC approved Quality Assurance Project plan was also completed and made available on the DEC Education website. Based on the success of this 2-year project, recommendations include continuing to coordinate with DITL of LOSLR teachers and partners trained in 2022 and 23 to support student summit events and applying the DITL model to support programming in the Oswego River/Finger Lakes watershed in partnership with DEC, OPRHP, and other interested partners. Website: https://dec.ny.gov/get-involved/education/teacher-information/day-in-the-life-lake-ontario-st-lawrence-river
The Great Lakes Action Agenda calls for an evaluation of long-term outcomes pertaining to aquatic toxicity, nutrient, pathogen, and sediment loading, invasive species, ecosystem resilience, and sustainable communities. To evaluate change related to these indicators, an understanding of the current environmental conditions is required for later comparison. The Baseline Conditions Characterization consolidates disparate open-source data to provide a unified analysis of current environmental conditions related to the Great Lakes Action Agenda outcomes at a sub-basin scale. This information aims to tell a full watershed story and will be displayed via a Story Map, which will inform future evaluations and reports of key environmental indicators of sustainable ecosystems. As part of this project, ecosystem and coastal resilience are being evaluated to determine trends in hardened shorelines, undeveloped land within floodplains, and coastal wetland and riparian forest habitats. This presentation will outline the methods of the Baseline Conditions Characterization and explore the trends related to the coastal resiliency of Lake Ontario.
