Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative advances key coastal resilience projects

The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative has significantly helped to advance the coastal resilience projects in nine Great Lakes communities.

Its work on the Initiative for Resilient Great Lakes Coasts, in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the consulting firms LimnoTech and Dewberry, and local community leaders, is bringing these projects significantly closer to reality.

“One of the biggest challenges communities face is moving a strong project idea far enough through the planning and design process to be ready for the next stage,” says Jon Altenberg, the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative’s President and CEO. “Through our partnership with NOAA, we are helping communities bridge that gap and develop coastal resilience projects that are better positioned to move toward funding and implementation.”

More than $1.5 million in engineering, design and technical assistance has been provided in the current round of support to the participating communities: Alpena, Bay City, Ecorse, and Oscoda Township in Michigan; Ashland, Green Bay and Superior in Wisconsin; and, Duluth, Minnesota. Their projects are designed to restore habitat, address coastal hazards, and provide co-benefits to local communities through proposed solutions that include native plantings, natural shoreline stabilization, dune establishment, green stormwater infrastructure and increased public access.

Funding for another group of communities will be announced in the near future.

_{📷Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative website}