Appendix A. Workshop Attendees and White Paper Reviewers

Participants in the May 17-19, 2023 workshop at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; to brainstorm concepts and recommendations regarding stronger integration of social dimensions within Great Lakes ecosystem-based management programs. Several scholars could not attend and served as report reviewers and contributors.

Appendix B. Enabling and Constraining Factors Brainstorm

Each table below contains the barriers and enabling conditions for each of the desired social outcomes.

Table 3. Barriers and enablers for Social Outcome 1. Restoration and revitalization actions explicitly contribute to equitable human well-being. This may include: providing access to safe and affordable potable water; providing access, in all 4 dimensions, to blue and green spaces that are safe; catalyzing economic opportunities; supporting public health; and supporting and leveraging community assets.

Table 4. Barriers and enablers for Social Outcome 2. Communities are prepared for ongoing adaptation to change. At all scales, communities have skills, knowledge, resources (e.g., human and natural), and power to adapt and thrive in the face of change.

Table 5. Barriers and enablers for Social Outcome 3. Multi-scale, equitable governance processes are operating. These: give communities agency; are inclusive, transparent, credible, and legitimate; are informed by multiple ways of knowing; and are responsive to local context.

Table 6. Social Outcome 4. Restoration and revitalization actions are contextual to place. Actions reflect unique local physical, social, and cultural aspects.

Table 7. Social Outcome 5. Environmental programs actively build a multigenerational and multicultural stewardship ethic. This respects "all our relations," identities, and roles "in a good way."

Appendix C. Complete Activities and Strategies Brainstorm and Voting Results

This list of activities and strategies is the complete list that was voted on by the participants in the workshop. The activities and strategies highlighted in yellow are the activities and strategies that were reviewed by groups to develop the SMARTIE recommendations. The activities and strategies were combined and refined to construct the final list of six groups of SMARTIE recommendations.

Appendix D. Table of Actors and Roles in Environmental Programs and Activities

Table of actors and their potential roles in environmental programs and activities. This table is not meant to be exclusive, but to illustrate that and how different actors engage in the process and what their roles can be. It is clear that every actor listed can take on leadership roles, although leadership may look different to each actor. It is intended to demonstrate the complexity of environmental decisions and how the centers of decisions shift depending on where the decision starts (i.e., with the community or organizations vs. with a governmental body).

Appendix E. Glossary

This is a glossary of terms that were used in this report. We should note, some definitions are formal based on literature. Other terms in this glossary describe how terms were used in practice during the workshop.

Agency and Adaptive Capacity. We rely on Berkes and Ross (2013) to understand these interrelated concepts, “Some of the social–ecological systems literature uses adaptive capacity in much the same sense as the terms agency, the capacity of an individual to act independently and to make one’s own free choices, and self-efficacy, the belief in one’s own ability to perform a task and to manage prospective situations (Brown and Westaway 2011, 325 -326). We view adaptive capacity as a latent property, which can be activated when people exercise their agency (p.15).”

Authentic engagement. This term was used to differentiate engagement methods that are perceived as “box checking” activities. This type of engagement is characterized by developing mutual goals and respect. This type of engagement is based on long-term relationship building.

GLRI and Action Plan. Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) is a US federal program administered by the Environmental Protection Agency, to restore the health of nearshore waters severely degraded by decades of industrialization. The program began in 2010 and is administered as a series of 5-yr Action Plans. Action Plans strategically address priority ecosystem restoration and protection needs (USEPA 2023).

Boundary spanning organization. An organization or individual that crosses or spans boundaries of social or disciplinary groups to enable knowledge exchange, language translation, value sharing; and ultimately ensure scientific salience, credibility, and legitimacy for all parties involved. Key boundary spanning functions include: convening, translation, facilitating collaboration and co-production, and mediation. (Cash et al. 2006; Goodrich et al. 2020) 

Ceded territory Refers to land areas ceded by Indigenous peoples, via treaties, to US or Canadian governments.

Coupled human-natural or human-water or human-environment or hydro-social systems We understand ecosystems as “complex, dynamic, interconnected systems with feedback across social and environmental dimensions (Ferraro et al. 2021).” Throughout this work, we employ “a holistic perspective to integrate patterns and processes that connect human and natural systems.” We use the shorthand “environmental” to signify an integrated (i.e., human-natural, human-water, human environment, hydro-social system) system. This integrated approach is needed to understand and manage unprecedented challenges. (Lui et al. 2021). One of our paper reviewers (J. Adamowski) uses the term “human-water systems” in his work, which seems appropriate here.

Co-development or knowledge co-production “An effective way to produce usable...scientific knowledge through a process of collaboration between scientists and decision makers.” Co-production involves: (1) “establishing long-term relationships between scientists and stakeholders; (2) ensuring two-way communication between both groups; and (3) keeping the focus on the production of usable science (Meadows et al. 2015)”. When knowledge is co-produced it is more likely to be accepted and used by decision makers. And “it becomes more transparent,” and provides a greater sense of ownership, to end users (Meadows et al. 2015).

Community capacity. “Community capacity is the interaction of human, organizational, and social capital existing within a given community that can be leveraged to solve collective problems and improve or maintain the well-being of a given community. It may operate through informal social processes and/or organized efforts by individuals, organizations, and the networks of association among them and between them and the broader systems of which the community is a part.” (Chaskin 1999).

Hacker et al. (2012) shared definitions from three publications: (1) the ability and infrastructure of an organization or community to provide services and programs; (2) the ability “to identify, mobilize, and address social and public health problems;” and (3) “the cultivation and use of transferable knowledge, skills, systems, and resources that affect community- and individual-level changes consistent with public health-related goals and objectives.” Capacity is critical to community sustainability and resilience (Berkes and Ross 2013).

Community dimensions. These are the community dimensions of neighborhoods and places, their characteristics, histories, cultures, structures, and connections to the Great Lakes. Williams et al. (2018) outlined the dimensions of place as experienced in neighborhoods: the structural elements (e.g., natural features, infrastructure, businesses), the built environment (e.g., parks, trails, housing, schools), the personal experiences (e.g., identity, place attachment, desire for self-determination), and coupled human-environment (e.g., aesthetics, resilience).

Community of practice. “A community of practice (CoP) is a group of people who share a common concern, a set of problems, or an interest in a topic and who come together to fulfill both individual and group goals. Communities of practice often focus on sharing best practices and creating new knowledge to advance a domain of professional practice. Interaction on an ongoing basis is an important part of this. (Edmonton Regional Learning Consortium, 2023).”

Cultural ecosystem services. Cultural services include aesthetic inspiration, cultural identity, sense of home, and spiritual experience related to the natural environment. Opportunities for tourism and recreation are often considered cultural services (FAO 2023).

Domains of well-being (Smith et al. 2013) This study outlines nine domains of well-being: health, spiritual and cultural fulfillment, social cohesion, education, safety and security, living standards, life satisfaction and happiness, leisure time, connection to nature. These dimensions contribute to environmental, societal, and economic well-being.

Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) employs an integrated approach to the consideration of the entire ecosystem, including component humans. Western natural resource management historically has focused on specific species, sectors, activities, or concerns; whereas EBM considers the character and dynamics of a spatially defined ecosystem, and the cumulative interactions and impacts of various human activities. EBM moves from a human-centered ethic to an eco-centered (ecoregional) ethic. The goal is to sustain an ecosystem in a functioning, productive, and resilient condition; so that it can provide a broad range of desired ecosystem services (Yaffee 1999; The Nature Conservancy 2023). Several existing EBM frameworks are directly applicable to the Great Lakes system, but have not been comprehensively applied: Marine EBM (Wondolleck and Yaffee 2017), Integrated Water Resources Management (Cruickshank and Grover 2012), and Integrated Coastal Zone Management (Lawrence 1997).

Ecosystem services Ecosystem services “produce the many life-sustaining benefits we receive from nature—clean air and water, fertile soil for crop production, pollination, and flood control. These ecosystem services are important to environmental and human health and well-being (USEPA 2023).”

Educational approaches and curricula. Educational approaches include outdoor learning, place-based learning, and expeditionary learning. Curricula are more formal, encompassing an outline or plan for a specific area of study or the courses offered by an education institution.

Equitable hiring. This idea was circulated in the workshop to indicate that hiring should be representative of the communities where environmental work is being conducted.

Environmental justice, four dimensions. The four dimensions of environmental justice is intended to expand the consideration of justice beyond the distributional (e.g., distribution of environmental goods and bads) and procedural (e.g., a procedure to consult) justice to include recognitional (e.g., community claims are heard and acted upon) justice and capabilities (e.g., benefits) justice.

Indigenous knowledge systems. Indigenous knowledge systems refers to “a cumulative body of knowledge, practice and belief evolving by adaptive processes, and handed down through generations by cultural transmission, about the relationship of living beings (including humans) with one another and with their environment” (Berkes 2018 in Muir et al. 2023).

Justice40. Justice 40 is a whole-of-government environmental justice initiative with the “goal that 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain Federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized, underserved, and overburdened by pollution (White House 2023).”

Knowledge co-production. (see co-development)

Place. Refers to “the emotional and spiritual bonds people form with certain spaces.” Place is central to including humans as true components of ecosystems (Cheng et al. 2003. “Reflects the complex web of lifestyles, meanings, and social relations endemic to a place or resource”. Place “(c)an be the shared language… that affirms the principles underlying ecosystem management (Williams and Stewart 1998).”

Key dimensions about the affective dimensions of place:

• Emotional bonds that people form with places over time and with familiarity;

• Strongly felt values, meanings, and symbols that come with familiarity;

• Valued qualities of a place that one may not be consciously aware of until they are threatened or lost;

• Set of place meanings...constructed...within individual minds, shared cultures, and social practices; and

• Awareness of the cultural, historical, and spatial context within which meanings, values, and social interactions are formed (Williams and Stewart 1998).

Redlining. Redlining refers to US government policies that directed mortgage lending away from non-white and immigrant communities in cities. Maps drawn by the Home Ownership Loan Corporation (HOLC) drew red lines around neighborhoods with Black and immigrant populations, graded them with a “D” and called them hazardous (Nelson et al. 2023). The racist housing discrimination effects of redlining persist today; current neighborhood demographics in major US cities closely resemble the original redlined maps and are understood to be the result of the maps. (Aaronson 2017; Blakely et al. 2023).

Scale. Scale is an important consideration because scale has different meanings (e.g., spatial, temporal, jurisdictional). Scales are social socially constructed and an expression of power. Scale is a consideration in environmental work for several reasons. For example, environmental processes function at a different scale than environmental decisions.

Speed of trust. It is a theory that trust and cost are related. When trust goes up, collaboration can progress more quickly and effectively. Conversely, without trust, processes grind to a halt and become more expensive (Covey and Merril 2006). In practice this may mean that a collaborative or team project is not rushed, rather it’s workplan timeline only proceeds as relationships and trust are built among project participants.

Tribal Nation (US) / First Nation, Metis, and Inuit (Canada). “Tribal Nation” refers to an American Indian or Alaska Native tribe, band, nation, pueblo, village, or community that the US Secretary of the Interior acknowledges as a Federally recognized tribe, and independent nation, pursuant to the Federally Recognized Indian Tribe List Act of 1994, 25 U.S.C (The White House 2000) The related concept of Tribal sovereignty acknowledges the inherent authority of Tribal Nations to govern themselves (University of Alaska-Fairbanks n.d.).

First Nation is one of three groupings of Indigenous people in Canada, the other two being Métis and Inuit. Unlike Métis and Inuit (the other two recognized Indigenous groups in Canada), most First Nations hold reserve lands. Symbolically, the term elevates First Nations to the status of "first among equals" as founding nations of Canada. It is reflective of the sovereign nature of many Indigenous communities, and the ongoing quest for self-determination and self-government. (www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca). 

US Great Lakes Indian Treaty Authorities. These organizations represent member Tribal Governments and manage natural resources in Ceded Territories. Examples of these organizations include Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission (WI), Chippewa Ottawa Resource Authority (MI), 1854 Treaty Authority (MN).

Glossary References

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Berkes, F., 2018. Sacred ecology. Routledge.

Berkes, F. and Ross, H., 2013. Community resilience: toward an integrated approach. Society & natural resources, 26:5-20.

Blakely, V., A. Jones, A. Palmer, and M. Ramirez. 2023. Emphasizing Natural Infrastructure, Equity, and Justice in Coastal Resilience Planning and Management Across the Great Lakes. MS Capstone Report, School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. https://dx.doi.org/10.7302/7099 

Brown, K., and E. Westaway. 2011. Agency, capacity, and resilience to environmental change: Lessons from human development, well-being, and disasters. Annu. Rev. Environ. Resources 36:321–342.

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Chaskin, R.J., 1999. Defining community capacity: A framework and implications from a comprehensive community initiative. Chicago, IL: Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago.

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