The Stewardship Event will highlight the importance of community-based coastal restoration by engaging Symposium participants directly in hands-on habitat restoration work. Erie MetroParks is designing a new "window on wildlife" education space at their Nature Center. Participants will help with on-site stewardship activities including site preparation and planting native seeds for a pollinator garden.
*This is an all-weather event - come prepared with layers, a rain jacket, and waterproof shoes. Light refreshments will be provided, and a carpool sign-up will be organized to support logistics.
Monday October 26, 2026 9:00am - 11:30am EDT Offsite
The Great Lakes enjoy extraordinary support from the public and decision makers – they are the uniting force in the region. This presentation will begin by assessing how this support has been leveraged strategically to create and maintain the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. Then the presentation will share the results of a recent analysis showing how the decline in federal Great Lakes funding and support has impacted research, data, workforces and other outcomes. Finally, the presentation will outline the preliminary results of the Great Lakes Horizon Scan, which is structured approach to identifying key long-term issues for which a proactive, strategic approach can bend the curve toward sustainable, resilient outcomes even in the midst of chaotic times.
Coastal restoration efforts across the Great Lakes have expanded over recent decades, supported by increased federal and state investment in hydrologic reconnection, invasive species control, nutrient reduction, and habitat improvement. Because these projects often pursue multiple objectives, evaluating their effectiveness depends on which ecological or management goals are prioritized and monitored. This session will focus on biological responses, particularly those tied to fisheries, to assess how restoration actions translate into meaningful improvements for target species and communities. Despite numerous project level successes, basin wide evaluation of restoration effectiveness remains challenging without consistent monitoring approaches and coordinated data integration. We will open the session by outlining how monitoring can scale from the nuances of a single site to coordinated regional efforts and how those choices shape the conclusions we can draw at each scale. We will also highlight the Fish Community Objectives (FCOs) developed through the Great Lakes Fishery Commission and the Lake Committees, which provide lake specific strategic guidance on desired fish community structure and often serve as reference points for restoration planning. Together, these elements will form a shared foundation for the presentations and discussions that follow, ensuring that diverse case studies can be interpreted within a coherent framework for evaluating restoration effectiveness.
Session participants will learn about the recently released (to-be-complete in October 2026) Science-Based Framework for Building Resilient Coastal Ecosystems in the Great Lakes Basin, which outlines a framework to support ecosystem resilience, enabling coastal systems to respond to and recover from climate-related disturbances. This work was funded and executed through a cooperative agreement between the Great Lakes Commission and USGS Great Lakes Science Center and coordinated in partnership with the Great Lakes Coastal Assembly, through the Coastal Resilience Workgroup and Ecosystems Task Force.
In the Lower Green Bay & Fox River Area of Concern, partners have worked together on a multi-step process for over a decade to develop fish and wildlife metrics, select habitat restoration sites and generate project concepts, and implement projects anticipated to meet goals for priority fish and wildlife habitats and population groups. Our presentation will summarize how this process has laid a foundation for the development of restoration designs across 12 large-scale projects. We'll also focus on how monitoring efforts being implemented at different scales, such as the Great Lakes Coastal Wetland Monitoring Program, Wisconsin DNR Fisheries Monitoring, and Citizen-Based Monitoring, are being leveraged to help guide the development of multi-faceted restoration criteria at Cat Island, Longtail Point, and the Duck Creek Delta restoration projects in Green Bay. Lastly, we'll provide examples of how these monitoring efforts will continue to be leveraged to verify that this science-based decision-making process has resulted in accomplishing fish and wildlife goals across projects in the Area of Concern.
The Brandenburg Park Shoreline Restoration Project was identified as a priority project by the St. Clair-Detroit River System (SCDRS) Initiative to address failing shoreline infrastructure and impaired fish and wildlife habitat in Lake St. Clair's Anchor Bay. The project utilized a combination of offshore habitat shoals, shoreline softening, and native plantings to increase shoreline protection and improve nearshore fish habitat. Following restoration, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources has collected annual data to monitor the response by target fish communities as one indicator of the project’s success. This presentation will provide an update to ongoing monitoring and will explore how the results of this effort have informed project development in nearby communities.
In 2024, the GLC Standing Committee on Climate Resilience - comprised of commissioners, observers, and partners from the 10 state and provincial jurisdictions of the Great Lakes - prioritized the following Recommended Action from the Action Plan for a Great Lakes Basin: “GLC facilitates development of a common set of metrics…to determine the current state of Great Lakes climate resilience and measure progress.” Over the past ~ 2 years, a work group of the Standing Committee has been meeting to build the first suite of metrics for public use on the (forthcoming) Great Lakes Insights website and is continuing to develop additional resilience metrics. Session participants will learn about the resilience metrics development process and preview key resilience metrics on the Great Lakes Insights platform.
Hillman Marsh is a designated Provincially Significant Wetland on the east side of the Pelee Peninsula, on Lake Erie. The formerly barrier-protected marsh covers a total area of nearly 1,000 acres providing ecosystem services to the region and critical habitat to endangered species and migratory bird populations. Due to the combined effects of human-induced disruption of coastal processes and increasing climate-related impacts, the barrier beach that once protected Hillman Marsh now features an irreversible breach approximately 500 meters wide. This has resulted in the destruction of habitat, loss of wetland species, impairment of ecosystem services, and has exposed the perimeter dikes surrounding the marsh to waves generated on Lake Erie. These dikes protect more than 2,000 hectares of low-lying agricultural and residential lands from catastrophic coastal flooding. With funding from the Canada Water Agency, the Essex Region Conservation Authority supported by a multi-discipline consulting team have developed an ambitious strategy to restore the Hillman Marsh barrier beach and wetland through a combination of traditional engineering and nature-based approaches. Construction is slated to begin in the second half of 2026. The presentation will explore the history of the site and the development of innovative concepts for the largest barrier beach and coastal wetland restoration project ever initiated on the Canadian side of the Great Lakes.
Fish such as Northern Pike spawn in interior wet meadows; however, access to this habitat has been greatly reduced by the spread of invasive hybrid cattail, particularly in Lake Ontario coastal wetlands. Channels have been excavated through cattail marshes to restore connectivity, but monitoring is needed to determine whether restored habitats are accessible and functioning for fish. Braddock Bay, a large drowned river-mouth wetland on Lake Ontario, underwent marsh channel restoration to increase habitat availability and connectivity. From 2018–2022, we evaluated fish use of restored channels and adjacent wetlands through wetland fish community surveys and targeted young-of-year (YOY) fish monitoring. Across monitoring efforts, 17 fish species were documented, including recreationally important Northern Pike (Esox lucius), Largemouth Bass (Micropterus salmoides), Yellow Perch (Perca flavescens), and Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus). YOY surveys captured 15 species and more than 3,600 individuals, with most collected from restored habitats. YOY Northern Pike were detected in four consecutive years following restoration, providing evidence that restored channels support spawning and nursery functions. This case study highlights how we can use post-restoration fish monitoring, including the use of an existing monitoring program, to assess connectivity and evaluate ecological performance criteria.
Rachel E. Schultz, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Wetland Science at SUNY Brockport whose current research focuses on Great Lakes coastal wetlands. On Lake Ontario, Dr. Schultz led post-restoration monitoring at Braddock Bay since 2020 and has investigated the impacts of wetland... Read More →
Communities of Practice (CoPs) have been widely utilized to enhance collaboration across disciplines, geographies, and organizations in the Great Lakes and beyond. This presentation will explore how multi-scale collaborations such as CoPs and networks can serve as a powerful framework for connecting coastal stakeholders, practitioners, and scientists to share knowledge, resources, and encourage collaboration. First, session participants will learn about efforts to build resilience in southern Lake Michigan through a new Illinois and Indiana coastal resilience-focused CoP, co-developed in collaboration between Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant, the Indiana Lake Michigan Coastal Program, and the Illinois Coastal Management Program. Speakers will share insights on building the bi-state CoP, the role of Sea Grant partnerships in advancing this work, successes and challenges, and future directions for the CoP. Expanding to broader scales, the session will illustrate how basin-wide and national CoPs enhance coastal resilience through peer-to-peer learning and collaboration. Speakers will highlight how these networks foster meaningful engagement, encourage knowledge sharing and coordination, and provide opportunities to strengthen connections across organizations and scales.
This presentation will convey lessons learned from successful coastal wetland restoration work in the open waters of excessively turbid Sandusky Bay without the use of anthropogenic water level manipulations. This talk will include a brief overview of Lake Erie coastal wetland status and restoration strategies over the past 150 years, with discussion on the ecological winners and losers associated with coastal Lake Erie’s ubiquitous water management infrastructure. To achieve the aspirational goals of restoring coastal wetlands throughout Sandusky Bay and other coastal estuaries (sans costly water management infrastructure), alternative restoration strategies and mindsets are needed. These turbid, eutrophic, high wave energy dynamics pose numerous challenges to restoring coastal wetlands, but they also offer fantastic opportunities for passive sediment capture. Lessons learned from recent and ongoing restoration projects within Sandusky Bay will be shared, including: quantifiable sediment and nutrient load reductions, native wetland plant selection/installation/predation, along with strategies to mitigate invasive species impacts (including carp and plants like Phragmites australis). Lastly, discussion on future large-scale restoration opportunities, economies of scale, and recommendations for reducing the “cost per acre” of wetland restoration.
Manoomin (wild rice; Zizania spp.) restoration is both an ecological and cultural imperative throughout the Great Lakes. Wild rice beds provide essential habitat for fish, waterfowl, and invertebrates while stabilizing sediments, improving water quality, and strengthening economic and food sovereignty for Indigenous peoples. However, Manoomin populations in the Georgian Bay region of Lake Huron declined precipitously over the past century due to water level fluctuations, increased wave action, development pressures, pollution, and climate change impacts. Successful restoration requires understanding the complex interplay of ecological and biogeochemical factors that underlie Manoomin viability, but little is known about such factors as they relate to successful restoration outcomes, particularly in Georgian Bay. This talk will provide an overview of a collaborative project currently underway that is laying the groundwork for a comprehensive environmental monitoring network in partnership between the University of Michigan, Loyola University Chicago and First Nation communities to support their potential Manoomin (wild rice) restoration efforts in Georgian Bay. As its initial field season comes to an end, the project’s highlights will include the results of preliminary survey efforts and its focus on the co-development of scientific and conservation objectives done collaboratively across social and geographic boundaries.
This session covers the history of the Sandusky Bay Restoration Initiative and the steps required to build support and move the Initiative from concept to implementation. The session will also highlight restoration goals, the theory of change, data collection requirements, water quality modeling, and ecological restoration design parameters (water level changes, herbivory, ecological functions, etc.) identified to guide landscape-scale design to achieve project goals.
The presentation will showcase two very different project sites where the City of Lorain used ecological solutions to address environmental challenges stemming from urbanization and heavy industry. The Martin’s Run Ecological Restoration Project will highlight how Lorain decreased localized flooding through the conversion of low-yield agricultural land into a high-quality stream and wetland complex that provides nearly 20 acres of publicly accessible space and 19 acre-feet of stormwater retention. The Reclamation Site Restoration Project marks a major milestone—the final Management Action in more than a decade of coordinated work to remediate legacy environmental impacts along the Black River and its riparian corridor stemming from historic steelmaking operations. Attendees will gain insight into how the City of Lorain completed over 20 projects and implemented large-scale solutions over 15 years that contributed to habitat restoration, the recovery of the Black River, and its eventual delisting as an Area of Concern.
Diked wetlands can be found in the coastal zone throughout the Great Lakes. These productive wetlands often were hydrologically connected to the lakes before construction of earthen berms that limited water exchange and fish access. This makes them priority targets for coastal wetland rehabilitation through installation of fish-passage structures. Work starting in the mid-1990s at places like Metzger Marsh (Lake Erie) and Oshawa Second Marsh (Lake Ontario) tested early rehabilitation strategies including dike redesign and carp-exclusion systems in structures. Site-scale monitoring after those projects characterized a positive ecosystem response, but intense monitoring of subsequent reconnections in the Crane Creek wetland complex (Lake Erie), and later the Maankiki wetland complex (Lake Huron), revealed much more about when and how fish use the rehabilitated sites. These findings informed the reconnection of over 50 other diked wetlands to rehabilitate coastal wetland habitats throughout the basin, setting the stage for ongoing monitoring of project impacts at multiple sites across the landscape and aggregation of data to explore how the site-scale projects are impacting lake productivity, fisheries objectives, and other landscape-scale priorities. Supported by Great Lakes Coastal Wetland Restoration Assessment data, reconnection of diked wetlands and low elevation agricultural fields continues as a rehabilitation strategy within the basin.
Great Lakes communities are experiencing escalated threats from extreme flooding and erosion due to fluctuating lake levels, increased severity of storms, and other climate impacts.This presentation will provide an overview of two programs that provide technical support and capacity building to such municipalities: the Initiative for Resilient Great Lakes Coasts, funded through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and implemented by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Great Lakes & St.Lawrence Cities Initiative, and the Resilient Coastal Projects Initiative, funded largely by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and administered by the Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Cities Initiative. Both programs engage communities across the region to advance coastal resilience projects and build local capacity to incorporate nature-based solutions. Program leads will share program models and municipal engagement approaches, and program partners will present nature-based designs and their co-benefits within the context of select projects. As many of these projects begin to conclude and/or move onto future phases, presenters will be able to share some of these communities’ most prominent challenges and opportunities. In the event the symposium allows for multiple sessions on this topic, another 15-30 minutes would be dedicated to detailed project examples across the Great Lakes coast.
Transforming programmatic environmental monitoring into regional policy change requires an unbroken chain of resource-intensive actions: i) the generation of clear objectives and research questions, ii) the creation of study designs that can actually answer those questions, iii) the comprehensive QA/QC and analysis of data, iv) the ethical sharing and housing of datasets, and v) the communication between and among researchers, stakeholders, and policy makers. In this talk, we will draw on specific, actionable examples of solutions from the H2Ohio Wetland Monitoring Program (WMP), a group that spans six research institutes and engages with partners from over 50 organizations to assess and promote nutrient reduction by restored and constructed wetlands in Ohio. We will briefly review common critiques of large-scale environmental monitoring programs, as discussed in recent literature. We will then explain the WMP’s data management and communication policies before focusing on the infrastructure the WMP has built to support flexibility in dynamic funding landscapes. We will end with short examples of successful interventions that were informed by WMP work. With forethought and adaptability, we can build environmental monitoring programs that are impactful, scalable, and resilient.
This session builds on previous sessions and covers completed and ongoing efforts to advance Sandusky Bay Initiative innovative projects to construction, as well as long-term adaptive management strategies to evaluate performance and improve designs, and lessons learned. Specifically, four innovative, synergistic projects have been completed that entail one lacustuary restoration at the mouth of Pickerel Creek, and three nature-based barrier wetlands. Permitting and outreach elements of another larger project in the center of the Bay, the Inner Bay Wetlands, are also being advanced.
The presentation highlights two climate and coastal resiliency projects completed by BNW in collaboration with landowners and stakeholders. The first features a coastal resiliency effort along the Niagara River on Grand Island; the second details a stream relocation project on Cayuga Creek in the Town of Niagara. Both projects employ innovative, nature-based techniques that strengthen community resilience while restoring essential fish and wildlife habitat. The session will also examine key challenges encountered and share best practices and lessons learned from each project.
The Sustain Our Great Lakes (SOGL) Program, administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, has invested in Great Lakes restoration for nearly two decades. In 2021, Audubon Great Lakes began evaluating SOGL effectiveness by monitoring migratory shorebirds, waterfowl, and breeding marsh birds at restoration sites. Using a Before-After-Control-Impact framework, we analyzed data from 2021–2025 to compare restored and control sites. While statistically significant restoration-specific gains were not detected, consistent positive trends across bird groups suggest emerging benefits. Shorebirds responded positively at sites with improved hydrology and topography, and waterfowl use increased within restored landscapes in line with regional patterns. Marsh bird communities, measured with the Bird-Friendliness Index, showed modest but encouraging improvements in condition. Overall, restored wetlands appear to be functioning as increasingly suitable habitat, though outcomes remain influenced by environmental variability and ecological lag times. These findings indicate SOGL investments are improving wetland condition and bird habitat, with stronger and more detectable benefits likely as sites mature and long-term monitoring continues.
The Great Lakes Coastal Resiliency Study (GLCRS) is a watershed study being conducted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) in partnership with the eight Great Lakes states. The study aims to identify potential vulnerabilities of coastal resources under a range of plausible future lake level conditions and develop recommendations to improve the resilience of the U.S. Great Lakes coast. This presentation will describe the study's approach to assessing vulnerability and risk, including the use of exploratory future lake level scenarios, screening-level GIS analyses, and qualitative risk assessments informed by local resource manager engagement. Rather than attempting to predict a single future, GLCRS evaluates multiple plausible scenarios to characterize uncertainty and identify vulnerabilities across a range of future conditions. The presentation will highlight how risk concepts were incorporated into basin-wide exposure analyses and more detailed focused evaluations of up to 140 site-specific coastal resources across the Great Lakes basin. These results will be used to identify and develop recommendations that can improve the long-term resilience of communities, infrastructure, ecosystems, and other coastal resources along the U.S. Great Lakes coast.
The amplitude, frequency, and direction of Great Lakes water-level changes over the coming decades is uncertain, with the potential for dramatic impacts on coastal ecosystems and the rare species that depend upon them. Whether the trend will be lake-level rise and ecosystem inundation or lake-level recession and potential ecosystem expansion is unclear. Identifying which species and coastal regions are most likely to be impacted by lake-level fluctuations will help focus resources on the most sensitive species and places. We developed a GIS model to predict lake-level changes using outputs from two regionally downscaled climate models and evaluated how those changes affected the total area of coastal ecosystems in Michigan and increased or decreased habitat for thirteen rare plant and animal species. These species represented a wide range of taxanomic groups and habitat requirements. Regions and ecosystems predicted to have significant responses to modeled lake levels, unsurprisingly, tended to be those with shallow near-shore topography or bathymetry such as Saginaw Bay. Our model predicted both habitat loss and gain for most species, depending largely on the climate model. Our results are an initial step toward proactively prioritizing Great Lakes coastal conservation. Future models that explicitly incorporate species demography, invasive species responses, and other ecological complexities will improve the realism of predictions and therefore conservation outcomes.
Long-term and multi-site monitoring programs are essential for understanding coastal wetland condition, identifying ecological change, and informing restoration priorities across the Great Lakes. The Durham Region Coastal Wetland Monitoring Program (DRCWMP) has monitored coastal wetlands along the north shore of Lake Ontario for nearly two decades using standardized protocols aligned with regional and binational monitoring approaches. The program evaluates wetland condition through indicators including fish communities, vegetation, water quality, birds, macroinvertebrates, and water levels to support fisheries and habitat objectives. This presentation will highlight how DRCWMP data are used to identify ecological trends and establish reference conditions across a network of wetlands. Integration of datasets collected through the Bay of Quinte Remedial Action Plan has strengthened the ability to evaluate regional patterns and restoration outcomes across years with highly variable water levels and climatic conditions. The presentation will also discuss how monitoring results support conservation planning and restoration prioritization through a structured conservation standards approach. Examples from the Lynde Shores Restoration and Resilience Project will demonstrate how long-term datasets are being used to identify ecological stressors, guide restoration actions, support adaptive management, and evaluate restoration effectiveness over time.
ommunities along New York’s Lake Ontario shoreline face increasing flood and erosion risks associated with high water levels, shoreline change, and climate variability. While natural and nature-based features (NNBF) are increasingly promoted as alternatives to shoreline hardening, implementation remains limited by uncertainty about where specific strategies are appropriate and how they can be coordinated across fragmented shorelines. Existing planning tools typically focus on individual sites or shoreline segments, providing limited support for landscape-scale adaptation planning. This project explores the feasibility of developing a Lake Ontario Adaptation Atlas, a regional decision-support tool that would identify suitable adaptation strategies across interconnected shoreline systems. Drawing on interviews with adaptation tool developers, a review of shoreline classification systems, and an assessment of existing adaptation planning resources from the Great Lakes and beyond, the study evaluates approaches for delineating Operational Landscape Units (OLUs), organizing adaptation strategies, and identifying suitability indicators. Findings suggest that OLUs should be defined as process-based planning units that integrate upland, shoreline, and nearshore dynamics while remaining practical for planning and implementation.
Along the eastern coast of Lake Michigan, bluff failures are influenced by lake water levels, bluff groundwater saturation, and lithology. The bluffs are composed of unconsolidated glacial tills interbedded with/overlain by glaciodeltaic sand and lacustrine silt and clay, and experience toe erosion, creeping, and slumping. Lake Michigan water levels peaked at record levels in 2019-2021 following a prolonged below-average period ( -2013), accelerating toe erosion and prompting widespread public concern. This study examines three sites in Michigan: Lakeshore Dr. in St. Joseph (SJo), subdivisions at Miami Park (MP), and a natural area near Ludington (LU), all exhibiting active groundwater seepage at clay layer contacts in the bluffs. Surface point clouds derived from UAS (drone) nadir and oblique imagery (2016-2022) and 2012 LiDAR datasets document erosion, landslides, and bluff top retreat at all sites. The unmanaged LU site experienced 177,000 ± 2,300 m³ of erosion at high water levels from 2019-2021, roughly three times the 2012-2019 rate. At MP, an area with several distinct management strategies applied, significant retreat occurred adjacent to locations armored with large boulders, with slumps causing losses of as much as 5-10m, where nearby densely vegetated slopes with active surface water management near the bluff showed minimal erosion. These observations highlight the complex interaction of management decisions and natural drivers to shape bluff failure outcomes.
Since 2007, NOAA Fisheries’ Office of Habitat Conservation has funded more than 130 habitat restoration projects in the Great Lakes region, primarily through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. These projects have collectively restored more than 5,700 acres of habitat and opened more than 860 miles of streams for Great Lakes fish species to access their habitat. We provide funding and technical guidance to local partners, who implement restoration projects throughout the Great Lakes basin. These projects help support our nation's fisheries and address a subset of habitat restoration projects identified by the Lake Committees as Environmental Priorities to meet fish community objectives for Great Lakes fish species.
New York’s Lake Erie communities are increasingly facing the impacts of flooding, erosion, storm surge, and varying water levels, yet technical modeling efforts often fall short of incorporating the perspectives and lived experiences of the people most affected. The presentation shares Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper’s Niagara River/Lake Erie Watershed Expanded Coastal Resiliency Study - an integrated approach to coastal modeling that combines scientific analysis with meaningful community engagement, resident education, and State agency collaboration. Using examples from community-based coastal resilience planning efforts, the presentation highlights how involving local stakeholders throughout the modeling process can strengthen project outcomes, improve public understanding of risk, and build long-term trust between residents, local elected officials, and State agencies. Rather than treating modeling as a purely technical exercise, this approach positions local stakeholders as critical knowledge holders whose observations, priorities, and concerns help shape both the modeling inputs and resulting restoration strategies. The presentation will examine methods for translating complex coastal data into accessible visualizations and engagement tools that support informed participation by non-technical audiences. It will also discuss the role of state agency partnerships in aligning local priorities with regional resilience goals, regulatory frameworks, and funding opportunities.
Wetland ecosystems are negatively impacted by invasive species proliferation, often driven by disturbance and nutrient pollution. Prior research has shown that invasive clonal plant harvesting [e.g. hybrid cattail (Typha × glauca)] effectively reduces invasion pressures to improve biodiversity across trophic levels. This practice, however, accumulates metric tons of low-value biomass rich in viable propagules leading to biomass movement and cost impracticality. Biochar production from invasive biomass shows potential for storing long-term carbon and sorbing available soil solution nutrients while concurrently reducing biomass volume. Biochar is produced when organic material is pyrolyzed in a low-oxygen kiln to produce stable carbon with high cation-ion exchange capacity. This presentation summarizes our current successes and challenges in biochar production / wetland reapplication following hybrid cattail harvesting. Furthermore, this session will share current research results from our team’s multi-year large-scale experiment[total = 56 plots; plot size = 1.1 acres] at Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge near Saginaw, MI. This research investigates peak biomass cattail harvesting [control, annual, biennial] and annual cattail biochar production/reapplication [0 metric tons (T) / hectare(ha), 10T/ha, 50T/ha] at a land management scale to serving as a launching point to scale–up ecological restoration while closing logistic loops in invaded wetlands.
Coastal restoration efforts across the Great Lakes have expanded over recent decades, supported by increased federal and state investment in hydrologic reconnection, invasive species control, nutrient reduction, and habitat improvement. Because these projects often pursue multiple objectives, evaluating their effectiveness depends on which ecological or management goals are prioritized and monitored. This session will focus on biological responses, particularly those tied to fisheries, to assess how restoration actions translate into meaningful improvements for target species and communities. We will wrap up this session by convening speakers in a panel discussion on the parallels among the goals of single site and coordinated regional monitoring. To further enrich the dialogue, we will engage panelists about strategies for building monitoring programs that are explicitly focused on effectiveness, and how to leverage the monitoring data collected to refine and improve restoration techniques. Additionally, we will explore approaches for interpreting the impacts of site-level outcomes on broader regional responses, especially related to Great Lake’s Fish Community Objectives, aiming to bridge the gap between localized project results and regional ecosystem management.
Phragmites australis is among Ontario’s most problematic invasive plants, degrading wetlands and coastal habitats, and reducing biodiversity. Located on a constructed landform on Toronto’s waterfront, Tommy Thompson Park is highly vulnerable to invasive plant species. Phragmites rapidly outcompeted native vegetation across more than 8 hectares within emergent aquatic zones, sheltered embayments, and terrestrial habitats. Toronto and Region Conservation Authority initiated the Tommy Thompson Park Phragmites Management Strategy in 2018. The program was designed to follow a 5 year adaptive management framework, integrating chemical control (glyphosate), mechanical removal (mowing and spading), annual monitoring (site specific and PAMF), and targeted restoration. Management is implemented annually across all impacted areas and outcomes are strong, with overall phragmites decline by 90% (notwithstanding annual variability). Native aquatic vegetation is recovering through natural regeneration and planting. A secondary invasion of Flowering Rush is being managed in the Triangle Pond wetland coinciding with meadow marsh and upland meadow restoration. Although planned as a 5-year strategy, the inter annual fluctuations in abundance highlight the necessity of sustained monitoring and maintenance to preserve biodiversity. In 2025, a biocontrol nursery was established to introduce moth control agents as part of the management approach; monitoring results are expected in a few years.
