GLIN==> CMU to oversee $10 million Great Lakes Restoration grant

CMU to oversee $10 million Great Lakes Restoration grant

Biology researchers at Central Michigan University are taking the lead on a
$10 million grant designed to protect coastal wetlands in the Great Lakes.
During the next five years, scientists will collect data to assess and track
the health of surrounding wetlands ‹ a move that environmental leaders say
is critical to the economy, industry and future of conservation.

The coastal wetland monitoring program supported by the grant implements a
monitoring plan finalized by the Great Lakes Coastal Wetlands Consortium in
2008, following nearly seven years of research and development. The plan is
to monitor major components of coastal wetland conditions that include water
chemistry, vegetation, invertebrates, fish and amphibian, and bird
communities.

³This effort will benefit anyone living near the Great Lakes watershed,²
said CMU biology professor Donald Uzarski. ³We have found that these
wetlands are very important to the overall health of the Great Lakes, which
much of our economy relies on. We have already lost 50 percent of these
systems from development and can not afford to lose more.²

Wetlands help support a $7.5 billion per year commercial and sport fishery,
and they also filter pollution before it enters the Great Lakes.
Additionally, they provide major breeding and migratory habitat for
wildlife, and some coastal wetlands are crucial for flood control.

The Great Lakes watershed covers areas in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois,
Wisconsin, Minnesota, New York and Pennsylvania as well as two provinces in
Canada.

³Great Lakes wetlands are important to Michigan's environmental quality and
provide excellent habitat to a high number of wildlife species,² said
Rebecca Humphries, director of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources
and Environment. ³The importance of this project is that we will learn how
to better manage and preserve wetlands.²

Uzarski, who is director of CMU¹s Biological Station located on Beaver
Island, as well as director of Great Lakes and Environmental Research at
CMU, said about 30 CMU biology students will be involved in research related
to the grant each year. CMU also will collaborate with other universities
and partners including the Department of Natural Resources and Environment.

Uzarski, who applied for the grant, recently was appointed by the Governor
to serve on the Michigan Wetland Advisory Council. The grant is funded by
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as part of an effort supported by
President Obama¹s Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. Uzarski brings more
than a decade of research and expertise related to wetland science and the
Great Lakes.

CMU researchers will set up monitoring plans for all of the Michigan
shorelines of Lakes Michigan, Superior and Huron, while other collaborators
will cover several hundred sites of shorelines connected to surrounding
states and provinces.

³This program is vital,² Uzarski said. ³It is important to the Great Lakes
ecosystem, and therefore, it is important to our economy.²

Media contact: Tracy Burton, 989-774-1072, tracy.burton at cmich.edu
http://www.cmich.edu/CMU_Media_Channel_Home/Great_Lakes_Restoration_grant.htm
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.great-lakes.net/lists/glin-announce/attachments/20101005/5734529f/attachment.html