LANSING – The latest State of the Great Lakes report, released Thursday, includes the kinds of data the state will be using to develop a new water strategy, Office of the Great Lakes Director Jon Allan said in the report. The 2013 report highlights such issues as water levels, the “blue economy” and invasive species.

The issues, Allan said, will be among those discussed as the state tries to develop a stewardship plan for the next 30 years.

“This Water Strategy will tackle big topics like water use – including conflict, invasive species, algal blooms and muck, legacy pollution, and restoration,” he said. “It focuses equally on healthy systems, quality of life, and human use and enjoyment.”

Governor Rick Snyder said in his message in the report that it was key to bring all interested parties into the discussions.

“With this shared resource so critical to our success as a state and region, we must foster a relationship of respect with our waters and with our neighbors,” Mr. Snyder said. “We must work together to develop economic opportunities – with an emphasis on sustainability. We have always depended on the Great Lakes, and it is my goal to help improve Michigan’s strategy to ensure decades of prosperity in the future.”

Snyder highlighted the summit he hosted this summer of the Council of Great Lakes Governors and the affected Canadian provinces.

“The summit resolved to promote Great Lakes trade, open procurement practices and increase exports from our region’s small- and medium-sized companies,” he said. “The U.S. and Canada enjoy the world’s most significant trade relationship, and we hope to strengthen that bond.”

One of the key issues facing the lakes in recent years, and affecting the state’s economy, is low water levels. But water levels in the lakes are prone to fluctuations, sometimes drastic, Andrew Gronewold, a physical scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. He did acknowledge, though, that water levels in lakes Huron, Michigan and Superior have been below average for about a decade.

“The future of Great Lakes water levels is highly uncertain. Changes in regional climate and meteorology could cause water levels on Lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron to drop further – or they could cause water levels to increase abruptly,” he said. “A combination of continued monitoring, improvements in forecasting, and anticipation of adaptation measures needed to ensure system resilience will collectively define how successfully we, as a region, meet current challenges and those we will undoubtedly face in the future.”

The report noted the dredging efforts this summer to open harbors along the Great Lakes.

Those low water levels, combined with agricultural and other runoff, led to algae blooms in Lake Erie in recent years, the report said.

On the other hand, man-made pollutants are being removed. The report noted 27 beneficial use impairments had been removed from around the lakes.

And efforts are underway for more coordinated monitoring of the lakes by the various states and provinces that border them, officials said.

Some of that is being aided by the Great Lakes Information Management and Delivery System in development by The Nature Conservancy, U.S. Geological Survey and the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes Landscape Conservation Cooperative, Scott Sowa, director of science for The Nature Conservancy Great Lakes Project, said in the report.

The region, he said, has “landscape-scale” conservation issues to address. “The answer lies in the methods used by companies like Starbucks and McDonald’s to deliver French fries, lattes, packaging and all the other necessary supplies to tens of thousands of locations in hundreds of countries around the world,” he said. “IMDS goes where no information system has gone before towards integrating the data, knowledge, and information to help us collaborate effectively to address the many landscape-scale conservation issues we face in the Great Lakes.”

The state is also working to control and prevent invasive species growth, Sarah LeSage, Aquatic Invasive Species Program coordinator in the Department of Environmental Quality, said. The DEQ, along with the departments of Natural Resources and Agriculture and Rural Development this year completed an invasives management plan.

Evidence also shows lake trout are making a comeback in Lake Huron, the report said. Recent angler surveys have shown half of the trout caught in the lake were naturally reproduced and there are discussions about ending stocking in the lake.

As part of the effort to increase tourism in the state, the Michigan Coastal Zone Management Program, the Land Information Access Association, Michigan Sea Grant and some other partners developed a water trails database (www.michiganwatertrails.org). “Paddlers can now click on a region of the state and instantly find information on local water trails and their associated amenities,” Lynda Krupansky with the Coastal Zone Management Program, said in the section on that program.

The program is also working to map additional off-shore trails, she said.

Universities are also involved in the development, leading the creation of the Lake Erie Crescent Innovation Cluster Initiative. The plan is being developed between Michigan State University, Case Western Reserve University, the University of Toledo and Oberlin College.

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