GLFT Grant Library

The GLFT has granted funding for a pilot project to support the development of next generation teachers and schools to advance PBE through scholarship, cross-curricular connections, and exploration of best practices for PBE in teacher training (hereby referred to as “the Next Generation strategy”). Through development of instructional techniques and support for handson learning of PBE pedagogy with pre-service teachers, this Innovation grant will support scholarship and research to advance the understanding of what is required to effectively teach students seeking to enter the teaching profession how to enact practices that are consistent with the principles of PBE. In addition, the project will advance the Hub’s goal of deepening teacher engagement and expanding teacher participation in PBE projects within school buildings currently participating in the Discovering Place (DP) hub. Finally, because the outcome is to encourage the next generation of teachers to value PBE and to develop the skills and dispositions requisite for PBE, the project will align with the 2017 GLSI goals of making PBE a central instructional strategy that is rigorous and developing, and would support long-term sustainability of PBE pedagogy. 

The Michigan Place-Based Leadership Network (MPBLN) project will support educational leaders who value the principles of Place-Based Education (PBE). Current policy and practice environments make it challenging for leaders, especially those that serve students in poverty, to create and sustain educational environments that support PBE. Leaders face significant time constraints for the planning and reflection needed to implement PBE projects. Additionally they are often isolated and have limited opportunities to share knowledge and resources with each other. The proposed leadership network (MPBLN) supports a real need of leaders that are committed to helping their students become stewards of their environment.

As part of the largest dam removal effort in Michigan’s history, the second of three dams will be removed on the Boardman River, a state-designated Natural River and Blue Ribbon trout stream in northern Lake Michigan. The Boardman Dam Removal Project is a signature effort that will ultimately reconnect 160 miles of prime fishery habitat, removing three dams and modifying a fourth to block invasives and provide fish passage to and from the Great Lakes.

The goal of the 125 member Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes (HOW) Coalition is to improve the health of the Great Lakes by addressing historic threats and preparing for new challenges. HOW’s “Restoring the Great Lakes: One Project at a Time” project will provide capacity building grants to local and state non-profit organizations in eight priority areas across the Great Lakes region to help them successfully implement restoration projects through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI).

Yellow perch stocks have not been assessed across the full range of habitats accessible from Lake Michigan, in particular drowned river mouth (DRM) lakes. We will use genetic and otolith isotopic analyses to delineate stock structure among nine DRM lakes and four nearshore Lake Michigan sites. We will also investigate the stock identity of suspected migratory yellow perch, which potentially represent a unique life history type, that move between Lake Michigan and DRM lakes.

Salmonid herpespesvirus 3, commonly known as Epizootic Epitheliotropic Disease Virus (EEDV) is a serious pathogen of lake trout, an indigenous species to the Great Lakes basin. With funding from the Great Lakes Fishery Trust, scientists were able to unravel some of the characteristics of EEDV by documenting two EEDV-associated epidemics in lake trout hatcheries. The study was able to sequence the full virus genome and decipher many of the genes that the genome carries; this will aid in finding potential vaccines effective against EEDV. The study also provided evidence for the host range of EEDV differences between lake trout strains. The project team was able to prepare virus-rich tissue homogenates from infected fish and used the material to standardize intraperitoneal and water-borne experimental infection protocol. The study increased the general knowledge of EEDV and has identified several targets of potential importance for developing control strategies. 

Michigan State University's Department of Fisheries and Wildlife will analyze otoliths from juvenile Chinook salmon collected in major tributaries of lakes Michigan and Huron to test for and identify unique chemical signatures from each source. They will use this information to develop a statistical model for predicting the natal source of any Chinook salmon collected in Lake Michigan, including those originating from Lake Huron. They will test the model by applying it to adults of known origin.

The Classroom with a Current Project engaged and supported a team of local high school students to design concepts for a new experiential watershed education exhibit or facility at the Grand Rapids Public Museum. The students’ concepts will inform a major museum redesign of existing natural history and interpretive exhibits to provide more comprehensive watershed and fisheries education opportunities for the West Michigan community to increase awareness, understanding and advocacy of the Great Lakes.

The project will determine the optimal environmental temperatures for juvenile lake sturgeon to be reared at, as well as the growth rate of these fish at 5 different water temperatures, including 3 replicates per water temperature regime. This will allow managers to construct growth models to model production programs, project size at stocking and project feed rates for the overall program and feed rates to feed at varying water temperatures.

This grant funded the Muskegon Environmental Research & Education Society to develop a business plan for the organization and improvements at the Muskegon Lake Nature Preserve, including describing the organization's mission, values, history, and current programming; the community need for the organization and improvements at the preserve; a market and competition analysis; and a strategic, financial, governance, personnel, and development plan for the organization and future programing and improvements.

The Parks and Recreation Division of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, in partnership with the Marketing and Outreach Division and the Michigan Historic Center will construct interactive interpretive exhibits at the newly restored Ludington Beach House for the purposes of inspiring and engaging visitors to get involved with Great Lakes fish conservation and Great Lakes fishing recreation.

This grant award will help fund the construction cost of two fishing platforms to be integrated into a new marina complex at Peshawbestown, Leelanau County Michigan. This directly supports GLFT’s goal of increasing tribal and public access to fishing on the Great Lakes (Lake Michigan) and will include the advantages of sufficient parking, walkways and restrooms. This is an active fishing area, with a longtime fishing heritage, and the platforms allow anglers to reach viable deep waters via casts

This project improved angler access at Holland State Park by removing physical barriers and paving a walkway along the channel between Lake Macatawa and Lake Michigan.

The grant was used to complete the design, preliminary engineering, studies and construction drawings and details to build an approx. 550 foot, universally accessible fishing pier at the mouth of the Boardman River on Grand Traverse Bay. The pier will provide unique, outstanding access for people of all ages, needs and abilities to fish for migratory and other species, and to learn about the Great Lakes, the importance of stewardship and the value, challenges and opportunities involving the fishery.

The Sault Tribe will develop a tribal fishing access and mooring facility on the north shore of Lake Michigan, near Epoufette, MI. The project will expand and improve a long-existing commercial fishing access and dock facility that is in now in disrepair and unusable for commercial fishing vessels. The project will provide: mooring for large commercial boats; launch capabilities for commercial, enforcement, biological, and recreational vessels; and parking.

The GLFT has awarded funding to The Superior Watershed Partnership (SWP) to establish a GLSI Base  Hub.  Becoming a Hub will build on and expand SWP’s successful youth conservation and innovative  environmental  education  programs, thus facilitating establishment of sustainable place-based education  (PBE) in its primary service regions and allowing expansion into the greater SWP mission area

Muskegon Area ISD Continuation Grant through K-12 Place-Based Education to foster stewardship of Great Lakes, Implement communications plan, and institutionalize place-based education as key research-based instructional method.

The GLFT provided funding to develop students as citizen stewards able to understand and promote healthy ecological and social systems affecting the Great Lakes basin and their communities through community-based learning projects. This is accomplished by bringing schools and community partners together.

This grant was funded under the GLFT's Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative (GLSI). It builds on a capacity-building grant provided earlier by the GLFT. The grant funded a planning process for a GLSI hub to serve six counties in northeastern lower Michigan. The process resulted in an implementation plan for the hub, which was successfully submitted to the GLFT for funding.

The goal of this project was to promote a watershed approach to freshwater stewardship and help students understand their connection to water in the region and the need to preserve and protect our natural resources.

The Western Upper Peninsula Center for Science, Mathematics and Environmental Education focused its Great Lakes stewardship efforts in the five western counties of Michigan's Upper Peninsula: Houghton, Baraga, Keweenaw, Gogebic, and Ontonagon. The Center worked closely with the other five math/science centers in the Upper Peninsula to share strategies, resources, and professional development opportunities in order to facilitate their future engagement in this effort.

This proposal sought to increase environmental stewardship of the Grand River Watershed in Kent County through education within school settings and community-school partnerships. It utilized place-based education, academic service learning, and the strengths of Kent County's community organizations in creating a systemic, comprehensive and transparent Hub aimed at promoting and addressing community engagement in the Grand River Watershed and developing environmental stewardship in Kent County.

GRAND learning Network is a network team from MSU that works with teacher leaders who take part in advanced professional development in PBE, Great Lakes content, and school change. They coach other teachers involved in Summer Institutes, foundational PD, and school-community stewardship.

This project focused on two themes: 1) Interconnectedness of community, land, and water, and 2) community, water and land can all be recovered and transformed.

Funding support from the GLFT improved fish habitat and water quality on an impaired tributary to Kids Creek in the Grand Traverse Bay watershed. The Watershed Center worked with the Munson Medical Center to daylight a section of creek on the hospital's new Cancer Center campus by replacing underground culverts and channelized ditches with a natural meandering channel, replacing two street culverts with open bottom bridge structures, installing in-stream habitat and establishing a riparian buffer and floodplain.