The Environmental Protection Agency is drafting the fourth iteration of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Action Plan. The agency is seeking public input on the new plan, designed to strategically target the biggest threats to the Great Lakes ecosystem, in a public engagement session in Detroit on Tuesday.
Chris Korleski, the director of the EPA's Great Lakes National Program Office, said public input allows the agency to get a better sense of community priorities.
“Going into Action Plan IV, we're really looking for and hearing a fair amount of comments about topic areas that we really haven't focused on in the past to the extent that we are now like both environmental justice and, of course, climate change. Which is very much on everybody's radar.”
Korleski says the engagement session allows the agency to better understand community priorities.
“We remind ourselves that habitat is just not good habitat for fish, trees or, terrestrial or aquatic plants. It's a habitat for people. We want to think about our communities,”
The new action plan will cover the years 2025 to 2029.
Residents will be able to submit comments about the action plan on Tuesday, August 15, at 6 p.m. at the DNR Outdoor Adventure Center, 1801 Atwater Street, in Detroit.