Donning our thinking hats for the development of the Great Lakes nearshore governance framework

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Recently there has been much emphasis on the nearshore areas of the Great Lakes due to an increased appreciation for the importance of those areas in the larger Great Lakes ecosystem. The impacts of ongoing and emerging stresses to the ecosystem often emerge first and are felt most strongly in the nearshore areas (Bails et al., 2005). Some of those stresses include extensive colonization of zebra mussels in the lower lakes (Hecky et al., 2004), invasion by other aquatic invasive species (Vanderploeg et al., 2002), algal blooms in Lake Erie (IJC, 2012; US EPA and Environment Canada, 2004), nonpoint source loadings of nutrients, pathogens and contaminants, particularly during more frequent severe storm events, toxic contaminants and hydrologic modifications (Bails et al., 2005). The breakdown of ecosystem function resulting from these threats has been seen as a failure of governance as the Great Lakes institutions were unable to effectively address the policy issues (Manno and Krantzberg, 2008). The problems signifying a decline in Great Lakes governance have been said to stem from a “lack of institutional accountability, a lack of inclusion and engagement of non-governmental civic society and a lack of distributive governance that coordinates and is flexible” (Krantzberg et al., 2007). The Great Lakes governance regime has been in decline since at least the late 1980s (Botts and Muldoon, 2005). Further, the International Joint Commission (IJC, 2011) identified governance as a key issue in its 15th Biennial Report, noting that “there is a critical need to modify existing governance to strengthen coordination across jurisdictional lines to address ecological challenges in the nearshore”.