(January 9, 2025) – “The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) is vital to support work on the ground and in communities across our region to enhance—and in many cases bring back—important wetland habitat that birds and people need to thrive.
Today, members of the Congressional Great Lakes Task Force introduced the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Act of 2025, legislation that would continue the federal investments in this crucial program. We thank Rep. David Joyce for introducing the bill alongside Reps. Debbie Dingell, Marcy Kaptur, and Bill Huizenga. Their commitment to facing the biggest threats facing the Great Lakes and leadership to work in a bipartisan manner to bring the federal investment needed to solve them is admirable.
The GLRI is resulting in cleaner water, healthier habitats, and stronger, more resilient Great Lakes communities. The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Act of 2025 is needed to reauthorize the program for another five years, at $500 million annually. This program is more important than ever as biodiversity loss and climate change threaten wildlife and communities across the Great Lakes region.
Thanks to support from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, Audubon is working with partners and local communities to restore places like Hatcher Park and Marshalltown Marsh in the Calumet region of Indiana, Allouez Bay in the St. Louis River Estuary region of Wisconsin and Minnesota, and Wigwam Bay State Wildlife Area in Michigan’s Saginaw Bay region—just to name a few! Restoration projects like ours can take years to complete and funding certainty is crucial to ensure they are successful.
The Great Lakes are a gift, not a given. We must remain steadfast in protecting and restoring them for the 42 million people who rely on them for drinking water and the countless birds who need healthy Lakes to survive. Congress should move quickly to pass the bipartisan Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Act of 2025 and extend the federal program before funding expires in FY26.
We thank all the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Act of 2025 sponsors to date: Dave Joyce (D-OH), Bill Huizenga (R-MI), Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), Debbie Dingell (D-MI), Pete Stauber (R-MN), John Moolenaar (R-MI), Brad Schneider (D-IL), John James (R-MI), Bryan Steil (R-WI), Emilia Sykes (D-OH), Tim Walberg (R-MI), Claudia Tenney (R-NY), Haley Stevens (D-MI), Bill Foster (D-IL), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Joseph Morelle (D-IL), Gwen Moore (D-WI), Sean Casten (D-IL), Jack Bergman (R-MI), Hillary Scholten (D-MI), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), Shri Thanedar (D-MI), Frank Mrvan (D-IN), Mike Kelly (R-PA), Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-MI)."
About Audubon Great Lakes
Audubon Great Lakes is a regional office of Audubon, learn more at gl.audubon.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
The National Audubon Society protects birds and the places they need, today and tomorrow. Audubon works throughout the Americas using science, advocacy, education, and on-the-ground conservation. State programs, nature centers, chapters, and partners give Audubon an unparalleled wingspan that reaches millions of people each year to inform, inspire, and unite diverse communities in conservation action. A nonprofit conservation organization since 1905, Audubon believes in a world in which people and wildlife thrive.
