Mining Ideas

Turning a Grant Assistance Program into a Knowledge Base

A Report on the Ecological Protection and Restoration Program in the Great Lakes Basin  -  April 1996

From 1992 through 1995, the Great Lakes National Program Office (GLNPO) of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) awarded $8,519,219 in grants for 87 projects to 36 local, Tribal, State, and Federal agencies and non-governmental organizations who collaborated with some 240 partners to protect and restore the Great Lakes ecosystem. More than 240 partners are collaborating with grantees to increase the quality and extent of native ecosystems and teach the public about the special and valuable nature of the natural resources of the Great Lakes.

In addition to GLNPO grant dollars, grantees have told us they leveraged $9,018,867 in actual dollars and in kind services. Twenty-one full time and 38 part time jobs were created. The dollars and resulting intensive activities have beneficially impacted the natural resources of more that 18.5 million acres, or approximately 15% of the total land acreage of the basin.

Because of the 87 projects the following can be said about the natural resources of the Great Lakes ecosystem:

• We know more about what ecological communities and species exist here and the processes and functions of the Great Lakes ecosystem than five years ago,
• Vast acreages are being impacted by project activities,
• New protection and restoration tools are being invented and knowledge accumulated and passed on to others,
• We now have a better idea of what we don't know - areas begging inventory, problems that need solving, technologies awaiting development,
• Partnerships are integral to the implementation of the 87 projects,
• With GLNPO dollars and as dollars are leveraged, projects are having an impact, directly and indirectly, on the economies of local communities,
• Communities formerly unaware of the natural resources surrounding them are now participating actively in protection and restoration activities.

The 87 projects are generating a wealth of information. GLNPO summarized the most recent information about each project in a descriptive narrative and compiled the descriptions into a "catalog". We and our partners will mine this catalog for ideas and build a network of protection and restoration experts with whom to fill in knowledge gaps and generate creative solutions to ecosystem problems. The health of the Great Lakes ecosystem, as well as the humans who live here, depends on its integrity.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• The Ecological Protection and Restoration Program
• Contributions of Grant Assistance to Ecosystem Health
1. Preproposal (by Grantee)
2. Funded Projects - FY 1995 Preproposal Pool (by Grantee)
3. Number of Projects and Total Dollar Amount
4. Agencies and Organizations Receiving Grant Assistance from GLNPO
5. Funded Projects - FY 1992 - 1995
6. Grant Assistance Dollars - FY 1992 - 1995
7. Grant Assistance Dollars by Lake Basin
8. Dollars Leveraged
9. Projects by Administrative Definition
10. Ecological Systems as Project Focus
11. Stressors Impairing System
12. Categories of Projects - Scope of Work
13. Categories of Projects - Common Themes
14. Categories of Environmental Results
15. Products Resulting from Projects
16. Economic Impacts
• Recommendations for Future Efforts in Ecological Protection and Restoration
• Project Summaries and Updates
• Partner List

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