The approved ANS plan now allows the state to request funds from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for program implementation. The state plans were just one area of discussion when Edwards and more than 70 other experts on aquatic nuisance species from across the Great Lakes Basin and the nation convened for meetings of the Great Lakes Panel on Aquatic Nuisance Species and the national ANS Task Force in Chicago, June 18-19. Representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service presented conclusions from a recent study of potential control strategies to prevent the spread of the round goby into downstream areas of the Chicago Waterway system. Among others, Commission Chair Don Vonnahme and Illinois Delegation Chair Frank Kudrna participated in the cruise. The full-color brochure was funded through a grant from the Great Lakes Protection Fund.
Copies are free.
Also available are two descriptive inventories of ANS resources, both products of the Great Lakes Panel on Aquatic Nuisance Species . Associated with each are panel-approved policy recommendations. Commission staff wrote the Great Lakes portion of the CD, a joint product of the National Wildlife Federation and McGraw-Hill. A comprehensive Great Lakes water levels fact book and reference guide is being developed. A joint project of the U.S. Army Corps, Detroit District and the Great Lakes Commission, the booklet will be widely distributed to planners, government officials and the general public this fall.