Ann Arbor, Mich. – The Great Lakes Commission (GLC) will award more than $1.76 million in grants to local groups to reduce the runoff of pollutants such as sediment and nutrients from entering the Great Lakes and their tributaries. Since 2016, projects funded by the Great Lakes Sediment and Nutrient Reduction Program have protected the Great Lakes through the prevention of nearly 200,000 pounds of phosphorus, 400,000 tons of sediment and millions of gallons of stormwater from leaving the landscape.

“Local communities are critical partners in improving the ecological and economic health of the Great Lakes,” Timothy Bruno, chair of the Great Lakes Commission and Great Lakes Program Coordinator at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. “The Great Lakes Commission congratulates the 2025 grantees and look forward to their contribution to a resilient Great Lakes basin.”

With a focus on phosphorus and sediment reduction, the Great Lakes Sediment and Nutrient Reduction Program provides competitive grants to local and state governments, Indigenous Nations, and nonprofit organizations to install erosion and nutrient control practices in the Great Lakes basin each year. Funded projects often include innovative and unique practices not typically funded by other federal cost-share programs.

The 2025 projects continue to promote two approaches: long-term sediment and nutrient management through engagement with the agricultural community and streambank restoration.  The following grants have been awarded:

Since 2010, the U.S. Department of Agriculture – Natural Resources Conservation Service has provided funding for the Great Lakes Sediment and Nutrient Reduction Program under the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI). In that time, the GLRI has provided over $4 billion to fund more than 8,000 projects across the Great Lakes region, which protect freshwater resources by restoring wetlands, preventing the spread of invasive species, and reducing sediment and nutrients.

More information about the projects is available at www.nutrientreduction.org.

The Great Lakes Commission, led by chair Timothy Bruno, Great Lakes Program Coordinator at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, is a binational government agency established in 1955 to protect the Great Lakes and the economies and ecosystems they support. Its membership includes leaders from the eight U.S. states and two Canadian provinces in the Great Lakes basin. The GLC recommends policies and practices to balance the use, development, and conservation of the water resources of the Great Lakes and brings the region together to work on issues that no single community, state, province, or nation can tackle alone. Learn more at www.glc.org.