Restoring and Protecting Great Lakes
Fish and Wildlife Resources

The Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem contains the largest body of fresh water in the world, holding 18 percent of the world's fresh surface water. It drains 288,000 square miles and covers 95,000 square miles with 9,000 miles of shoreline, 5,000 tributaries, and 30,000 islands.

The USFWS Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem Team is comprised of participation by the 43 field stations in the Great Lakes ecosystem and represent a range of Service programs that work to restore and protect the Nation's trust resources, including migratory birds, threatened and endangered species, and interjurisdictional fisheries. Through the Team and its partners in the ecosystem, the Service addresses landscape-scale resource objectives using an ecosystem approach.

The Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem Team is focusing much of its efforts on the basin-wide issues of lake sturgeon, invasive species, and coastal habitat restoration and the conservation of migratory birds, endangered species, and island environments. Although there are a myriad of critical issues in the Great Lakes basin, the Team decided on these issues in order to make strides in these areas over and above the work that the Service was already doing in the basin. Specific objectives of the team in these areas may be found in the team's strategic action plans.

Department of InteriorU.S. Fish and WildlifeUSA.gov
Privacy Act/DisclaimerContact UsAbout Us
AccessibilityNoticesFOIA

Updated November 17, 2006

Lake sturgeon photo courtesy of the Shedd Aquarium