Mayors, conservationists blast possible cuts to Great Lakes restoration work

A group representing the region's mayors in both the United States and Canada joined conservation groups Friday in responding sharply to news that the Trump administration is mulling drastic cuts to the ongoing Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.

The proposed cuts, reported by the Detroit Free Press on Thursday, would slash annual funding for the $300 million program to $10 million. The restoration initiative is an ecological recovery program for the Great Lakes that combats invasive species, curbs nutrient-fueled algae blooms, cleans up toxic messes and restores sensitive fish and wildlife habitat.

“Cuts of this magnitude would be devastating to the efforts of our two countries over the past five decades to restore the resource," said David Ullrich, executive director of The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, which represents mayors from more than 125 U.S. and Canadian cities in the Great Lakes basin.

Ullrich said the cuts also will undermine all of the lake restoration and protection efforts underway by local governments, which are collectively far more significant than the federal restoration initiative launched by the Obama administration in 2010.

“Local governments have been investing at over $15 billion per year ... well beyond the federal governments’ investments," Ullrich said, "and this would be a major step back from the responsibility shared for this resource.”

Conservation groups say the new administration appears to underestimate the popular support for the restoration program in the region.

“Great Lakes protection is not a partisan issue. No matter how different our backgrounds, Great Lakers value clean water,” the Alliance for the Great Lakes said in a statement issued Friday. “For decades, people of all political affiliations from all corners of the region, have consistently shown strong support for protecting the Great Lakes. And, some of the most critical programs and regulations targeted by President Trump’s proposed cuts have been supported by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.”

The mayors and conservation groups and regional politicians also are dismayed by news that the release of a plan to modify a navigation lock on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal to halt the advance of Asian carp into the Great Lakes has been at least temporarily halted. The plan has been criticized by some business leaders and politicians in Illinois for the potential negative effect it could have on barge traffic on the canal.

“It is outrageous that just days after delaying a critical plan to stop Asian carp, it appears that President Trump’s budget is calling for a 97% cut in funding for the bipartisan Great Lakes Restoration Initiative,” U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) said in a news release Friday.

“This initiative has been critical to cleaning up our Great Lakes and waterways, restoring fish and wildlife habitats and fighting invasive species, like Asian carp," she said.