Materials from the 2024 Fall Fly-in

We had another successful Great Lakes Conference in 2024! Around 280 people joined us in Chicago over the course of two days. We’re already planning the 2025 Great Lakes Conference and we hope you’ll join us next fall in Rochester, New York!

This week the EPA removed New York’s Rochester Embayment Area of Concern on the shore of Lake Ontario from the list of most-contaminated sites in the Great Lakes region, drawing praise from the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition.

Hundreds of advocates for the Great Lakes are preparing to gather in Chicago, Illinois, September 26-27, for the 2024 Great Lakes Conference, put on by the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition.

To help combat tree inequity, nonprofit environmental advocacy organization Faith in Place was awarded $1.99 million by the U.S. Forest Service’s Urban and Community Forestry Program to increase urban tree canopies in the Great Lakes region. Made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act, these funds will allow Faith in Place to facilitate tree planning and workforce development projects at faith institutions and 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations serving disadvantaged communities throughout Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin.

Deep in the heart of urban Chicago, a network of floating wetlands is restoring native wildlife habitats, increasing biodiversity, and encouraging recreation along the north branch of the Chicago River. Known as The Wild Mile, the interconnected islands were installed by grassroots environmental restoration organization Urban Rivers in 2017 and have since been dubbed the world’s first floating eco-park.

In 2019, Save the Dunes joined forces with the Indiana Dunes National Park and other regional partners to increase habitat connectivity and migration pathways for pollinators—some of the most important creatures in the global ecosystem.

The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations released its proposed fiscal year 2025 Interior and Environment funding bills. The Republican budget being considered would hold Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funding at $368 million (level with current funding) but would eviscerate other core clean water programs by cutting the EPA budget by 20 percent.