Before closing out 2024, we want to take some time to celebrate some of the clean water wins this past year. The Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition is grateful for our partners across the eight-state Great Lakes region and these successes wouldn’t have been possible without their continual efforts; thank you, all!

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.

Adding accessible ramps, boat launches, trails, and signage is helping visitors with disabilities access a culturally and environmentally significant Great Lakes destination.

When Milwaukee’s Water Equity Taskforce found that employees of the water sector in the region didn’t reflect the diversity of the community and that structural barriers prevented equitable representation, participating organizations took action.

Building up the Lac Courte Oreilles Band’s capacity for natural resource management aids in monitoring and conserving culturally important native species such as wild rice, and promotes community awareness and education around the Great Lakes ecosystem.

The majority of Wisconsin’s lead poisoning cases are from Milwaukee’s north and south sides, where the local populations are predominantly Black and Brown. From this crisis, Milwaukee has also become home to a grassroots collective working to get the lead out of the city: The Coalition on Lead Emergency (COLE).

The Door-Kewaunee Watershed Demonstration Farm Network is supporting sustainable methods of farming to reduce runoff pollution into Lake Michigan and Green Bay, improve groundwater and surface water quality, and model those practices for other local farms.

Planting native vegetation along the Pike River and restoring an adjacent wetland is reducing erosion, preventing storm runoff, and providing a home for fish and other native species.