Great Lakes United is made up of member organizations representing environmentalists, conservationists, hunters and anglers, labor unions, community groups, and citizens of the United States, Canada, and First Nations and Tribes. A conservation ethic that will leave a healthy Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Protection Fund is a private, nonprofit corporation formed in 1989 by the Governors of the Great Lakes States. It is a permanent environmental endowment that supports collaborative actions to improve the health of the Great Lakes ecosystem. The Fund seeks projects which lead to tangible improvements in the health of the Great Lakes ecosystem, promote the interdependence of healthy ecological and economic systems, and are innovative, creative, and venturesome.
Support can be in the form of grant awards, loans, or other investment mechanisms.
The Fund was developed after two decades of increasingly cooperative efforts to address the lakes' ecological problems. In 1988, the Council of Great Lakes Governors and the Center for the Great Lakes developed a structure for the Fund. The mission of the Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund is to empower citizens to take action at the community level to protect and restore wetlands, shorelines, rivers, lakes, and other aquatic habitats throughout the Great Lakes Basin. The Network and Fund provide consultation and financial resources, share information, and foster communication between citizens and organizations working to protect aquatic habitats. These and other aquatic habitats in the Great Lakes Basin protect water quality, provide important fish and wildlife habitat, serve as reservoirs of biological diversity, and improve the quality of life of Great Lakes residents and visitors.