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Climate Change How can communities sustain the health of Lake Superior in the face of climate change, mining, invasive species, and emerging chemicals of concern?

The challenges facing Lake Superior are many--yet local, regional, and international communities overcame enormous threats to the lake's ecosystems in the past century. My research asks: what can we learn from the extraordinary conservation recoveries of Lake Superior over the past century, as we face new interconnected challenges?

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Fish, Forests, & Toxics Lake Superior seems pure, cold, lovely, wild, and vast: a wilderness. Yet it’s under threat. Water levels have been dropping, water temperatures have been rising, and development has been fragmenting forests, draining wetlands, and cutting estuaries off from the lake.

Exotic species, particularly zebra mussels and sea lamprey, continue to wreak massive changes in food webs and entire ecosystems, and asian carp seem poised to invade the lake. Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) remain, even though many of them were banned decades ago, while new synthetic endocrine-disrupting chemicals make their way into the lake.

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Mining The Lake Superior watershed is undergoing a new mining rush as demand and prices for metals increase. While new mines may mean new jobs, they can also undermine the health of human and environmental communities.

What can we learn from the history of past mines in the watershed as we try to decide whether new mines are justified? For example, do the old taconite mines on Minnesota's north shore that are currently leaching sulfate into the St. Louis River estuary and releasing mercury into the atmosphere offer us any insights into the Penokee mine in the Bad River Watershed that Gogenic Taconite is proposing?

Sustaining Lake Superior

What is the Binational Forum?

The Lake Superior Binational Forum is a stakeholder's group of 24 volunteer members from Canada and the United States dedicated to protecting Lake Superior. We represent various sectors including small businesses, environmental organizations, industry, Native Americans, First Nations and academia. Our purpose is to provide input and analysis to the governments about critical issues relating to Lake Superior such as discharge of toxic substances, pollution prevention and restoration efforts. We are also responsible for developing creative new strategies for eliminating pollutants and contributing toward the foundation of a sustainable economy.

Visit our official website and blog at www.superiorforum.org

We are part of The Lake Superior Binational Program, which is a partnership of government, industry, universities native organizations, environmental groups and interested individuals from Canada and the United States dedicated to the restoration and protection of the Lake Superior Basin, including its water, air, land, wildlife and people. The Program achieves this objective through pollution prevention, regulatory measures and remedial programs. Its ultimate goal is to develop a comprehensive long-term management plan for the Lake Superior ecosystem.

The Lake Superior Binational Program consists of several main components:
  • Task Force - Make up of high-ranking government representatives who make policy decisions regarding Lake Superior, the Task Force serves as a steering committee for the Binational Program.
  • Superior Work Group - Comprised of technical experts from various agencies and organizations that manage Lake Superior's resources, the Work Group implements and monitors policies put in place by the Task Force.
  • Lake Superior Binational Forum - This group of volunteers representing a cross section of the general public makes recommendations to the governments and provides information and analysis.

Binational Forum Vision Statement

Endorsed by the Lake Superior Binational Forum on January 31, 1992 as an expression of the hearts and minds of all of us.

As citizens of Lake Superior, we believe...
  • that water is life and the quality of water determines the quality of life.
We seek a Lake Superior watershed...
  • that is a clean, safe environment where diverse life forms exist in harmony: where the environment can support and sustain economic development and where the citizens are committed to regional cooperation and a personal philosophy of stewardship;
  • that is free of toxic substances that threaten fish, wildlife and human health; where people can drink the water or eat the fish anywhere in the lake without restrictions:
  • where wild shorelines and islands are maintained and where development is well planned, visually pleasing, biologically sound, and conducted in an environmentally benign manner;
  • which recognizes that environmental integrity provides the foundation for a healthy economy and that the ingenuity which results from clean, innovative and preventive management and technology can provide for economic transformation of the region;
  • where citizens accept the personal responsibility and challenge of pollution prevention in their own lives and lifestyles and are committed to moving from a consumer society to a conserver society; and
  • where there is greater cooperation, leadership and responsibility among citizens of the basin for defining long term policies and procedures which will protect the quality and supply of water in Lake Superior for future generations.
We believe that by effecively addressing the issues of multiple resource management in Lake Superior, the world's largest lake can serve as a worldwide model for resource management.