Editorial: Don't slash funding for the Great Lakes

Cutting Great Lakes funding from $300 million to $10 million, as the Trump administration reportedly is considering, is unacceptable. And Congress, led by representatives from the Great Lakes states — especially House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) — needs to send a strong message that it won't stand for such a measure and will restore any money that is cut.

Those representatives deserve the grass-roots support of citizens not only from the Great Lakes region but from across the country, to restore and preserve what is a global treasure of fresh water and a source of recreation and jobs for millions of people.

That effort has begun: On Friday, a group representing the region's mayors in both the United States and Canada and conservation groups expressed deep concerns over proposed cuts to the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. The cuts were first reported by the Detroit Free Press on Thursday. The restoration initiative is an ecological recovery program for the Great Lakes that combats invasive species, curbs nutrient-fueled algae blooms, cleans up toxic messes and restores sensitive fish and wildlife habitat.

“Cuts of this magnitude would be devastating to the efforts of our two countries over the past five decades to restore the resource," said David Ullrich, executive director of The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, which represents mayors from more than 125 U.S. and Canadian cities in the Great Lakes basin.

A Feb. 17 letter from nearly 50 members of the House, including most of the Wisconsin delegation, urged funding the initiative at $300 million again this year, noting that since its inception in 2010, the program has been used to support more than 3,000 restoration projects "to improve water quality, protect and restore native habitat, clean up environmentally-impaired areas of concern, fight invasive species and prevent beach closings."

The fight against invasive species includes efforts to bar the Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes, which also may be under threat from the Trump administration. Dan Egan of the Journal Sentinel reports that mayors, conservation groups and regional politicians also are dismayed by news that the release of a plan to modify a navigation lock on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal to halt the advance of Asian carp into the Great Lakes has been at least temporarily halted. The plan has been criticized by some business leaders and politicians in Illinois for the potential negative effect it could have on barge traffic on the canal.

In Michigan, officials are asking the public for new ideas and plan to offer a prize to whoever comes up with a way to stop the voracious fish. Michigan has a $38 billion tourism industry, much of it focused on the outdoors, and the Great Lakes region has a $7 billion fishing industry.

Michigan has a great idea, and it's one that other states, including Wisconsin, should take up. But it is no substitute for adequately funding the Great Lakes Initiative. A Brookings Institution report several years ago showed that for every $1 invested in Great Lakes restoration, there is a $2 return in the form of increased fishing, tourism and home values. The Trump administration needs recommend enough funding to get the job done. If it fails to do that, Congress should step in.