Newspapers Clash Over Effects of Momentous Great Lakes Plan

About a month ago Federal officials unveiled a five-year blueprint for the protection and restoration of the Great Lakes.  The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Action Plan, as it is called, outlines plans to actively improve the Great Lakes as opposed to simply minimizing present dangers. With a budget of over $2.2 billion, and focus areas that include invasive species, pollution, and habitat restoration, the plan could decisively change the future of the Great Lakes.

Two local newspapers recently faced off over whether the plan will be a good or bad thing for Michigan. The Detroit Free Press is optimistic about a specific plan that is backed not only by rhetoric but by hard funding as well. The Free Press contends that in general the plan is “sound and realistic.”

The Detroit News, on the other hand, is wary of the plans and warns against excessive Federal control of the Great Lakes. They worry that “regional planning among federal, state, local and Native-American tribal authorities” will lead to “added intrusion by Uncle Sam.”

Does regional planning among different sectors of government have to be a bad thing? We don’t think so. The more people, money, and government “will power” we have behind the important issue of protecting our Great Lakes, the better. After all, the Great Lakes Compact was a regional effort, and is perhaps the best example of interstate and international collaboration we’ve witnessed in a long time.

Still, we must keep plans simple and specific so that real action is accomplished. We hope action remains the most important word in this plan’s vocabulary.