Great Lakes restoration will receive full funding, helping Northland programs

DULUTH, MN — $300 million dollars are on the way to help restore the Great Lakes.

President Trump made the announcement Thursday night in a reversal of sorts.

“I support the great lakes, always have. They’re beautiful and deep. record deepness. and I’m going to get full funding of 300 million dollars for the great lakes restoration initiative.”

Those dollars directly impact several Northland programs helping in that restoration project.

Programs such as Sea Grant based in Duluth will be effected greatly when it comes to their work on Lake Superior and beyond.

The Twin ports can breathe a sign of relief after President Donald Trump announced he would fully fund the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.

Programs such as Sea Grant say they’re thankful, because of what the GLRI has provided in the past.

Associate Director of Sea Grant, Jesse Schomberg states, “We’ve worked on some issues for road side ditches, we’ve worked with some communities with run off issues, it’s helped with our efforts to prevent the spread of aquatic species.”

Among other things Schomberg says it will also influence future projects that they weren’t able to accomplish just yet.

“We’ve known that there’s been problems for instance in the St. Louis River since the 70’s, We’ve had huge issues down there. There hasn’t been the funding to deal with it yet. Now this is the opportunity to deal with some of these problems.”, Schomberg says.

The National Resources research institute is another organization that receives funding from the initiative.

Aquatic Ecologist of Natural Resources Institute, Valerie Brady stated, ” The funding means that we can do research that will continue to provide that support, so we have a couple of projects that are across the great lakes and that will help access how the great lakes are doing.”

Projects that will assess algae, health of the coastal wetlands, and risk maps to show how the great lakes are doing.

The funding, also puts people to work.

“One thing people don’t realize and maybe don’t think about with GLRI money is that when I’m running a research project, I’m hiring people and paying people, so GLRI actually supports the jobs and the economy of this area.” states Brady.

Trump’s 2020 budget had offered only $30 million for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.

Governors of five states had warned the move would cost jobs, hurt tourism and jeopardize public health.

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