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Integrating the Great Lakes into the Midwest Conservation Blueprint
Bare Bluff overlooking Lake Superior. Courtney Celley/USFWS
In 2025-2026, the Midwest Landscape Initiative is expanding the Midwest Conservation Blueprint to include the nearshore waters of the Great Lakes.
Overview
The Great Lakes is one of the world’s most treasured freshwater systems and is pivotal to human lives and livelihoods, including drinking water for 40+ million people, an annual $7+ billion fisheries economy, and many other ecosystem services. Many agencies, organizations, and partnerships have expressed the need for plans, designs, and strategies that better align, connect, and integrate the waters of the Great Lakes and the lands within the basin.
What We Plan to Do
The Midwest Conservation Blueprint is already helping to facilitate collaborative approaches across the “continental Midwest.” This includes all lands and waters in the region but does not yet incorporate the waters of the Great Lakes themselves.
The Midwest Landscape Initiative, responsible for stewarding the Midwest Conservation Blueprint, will engage with partners to extend the existing prioritization to include nearshore waters (<30m depth) of the United States portion of the Great Lakes using data that can spatially reflect the socio-ecological indicators and sub-indicators in the 2022 State of the Great Lakes report. This first stage, occurring across 2025-2026 will follow methodologies consistent with the development of the Midwest Conservation Blueprint.
This effort is not intended to supersede local data, knowledge, or authority, but instead is a “basemap” to connect other data, priorities, and plans. Longer-term stages can potentially expand to include the pelagic and Canadian waters of the Great Lakes.
What We Hope to Achieve
By integrating the priorities and waters of the Great Lakes with the Midwest Conservation Blueprint, we can help:
- Connect and amplify the existing and diverse partnerships, planning, and implementation activities across the Great Lakes basin.
- Integrate land-water planning across the Great Lakes Basin and beyond.
We Need Your Input!
Attend our virtual workshops to learn more about this process and to actively shape it. All workshops will take place between 2-4 ET.
- May 27: Indicator Brainstorm and Recommendations
- Save the date for future workshops:
- July 22: Spatial Data Brainstorm and Recommendations
- September 23: Follow-up and Next Steps
FAQs:
Who should attend the public webinars?
Anyone interested in conservation in the Great Lakes Basin should attend. All are welcome!
I have a question, comment, or concern. Who can I contact?
Contact Alex Wright at alexander_wright@fws.gov. We welcome your input!
Where can I learn more about the Midwest Conservation Blueprint?
Detailed information about the Midwest Conservation Blueprint, including the development process and methodologies, can be found on the Midwest Conservation Blueprint webpage.