President-elect Donald Trump has pledged more drilling, less focus on climate change, and more rollbacks of environmental laws that he believes could hurt the economy.

But leaders of three major Great Lakes environmental activist groups said this week they are cautiously optimistic the next four years, while challenging and unpredictable, may not be all that detrimental to the world’s largest collection of fresh surface water.

Howard Learner, Environmental Law & Policy Center founder and executive director; Joel Brammeier, CEO of the Alliance for the Great Lakes; and Laura Rubin, director of the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, agreed during an hourlong livestream event that both parties know the Great Lakes are too important to let backslide.

“Don't panic,” Mr. Brammeier said. “We are prepared.”

Ms. Rubin noted, “We don't want to get distracted by the chaos and the show of this administration.”

Similar comments were made by outgoing U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 Administrator Debra Shore during a Tuesday interview with The Blade.

“It gets down to peoples' feelings about the lakes. They've become places of special meaning, sacred spaces,” said Ms. Shore, whose regional office covers the Great Lakes. “I think it comes down to a recognition that we have an obligation to care for creation. These are special places on Earth.”

Trump has stated that, despite his opposition to environmental programs advanced by President Biden, he wants clean water and clean air as much as anyone.

His running mate, Vice President-elect JD Vance, is now seen by the leaders of those three environmental groups as a potential ally because of his Ohio roots. Though it wasn’t discussed during this week’s Great Lakes event, Mr. Vance drew national recognition for his collaboration with outgoing U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio) during the post-disaster response at East Palestine, Ohio, one of Ohio’s largest environmental cleanups.

Mr. Vance was co-chairman of the Great Lakes Task Force as a member of the U.S. Senate and a supporter of an Obama-era program known as the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.

“Vance may help address issues in Ohio and the Great Lakes region,” Ms. Shore said.

Many discussions about hope for unity on Great Lakes issues often begins with the GLRI.

The three environmental leaders on this week’s livestreamed discussion, as well as Ms. Shore and many others, are quick to point out that the GLRI has for years been one of the few programs in Washington to receive bipartisan support in this era of sharp rhetoric and divisive politics.

During his first term, Trump twice proposed 90 percent cuts to the GLRI budget, only to have Congress overrule him both years. After that, he left the GLRI alone.

The success of the GLRI inspired a similar program in Canada, Mr. Brammeier noted.

The GLRI is a program in which Congress has spent $3.7 billion since 2010 toward the cleanup of legacy polluted sites and improved wildlife habitat. Several of those investments have been in the Toledo area, including a man-made wetland near Maumee Bay State Park that was built to help improve water quality.

Most recently, GLRI money has been used to improve two Maumee River islands in South Toledo near Walbridge Park, Clark Island and Delaware/Horseshoe Island. The combined $13.5 million of work includes $8.15 million from Gov. Mike DeWine’s H2Ohio program and $5.4 million in GLRI money released by the U.S. EPA.

The GLRI has been typically funded at $300 million to $500 million a year.

The current funding level is $475 million a year.

A group of sponsors that included U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo), U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D., Mich.), and others introduced the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative of 2025, a bill that would reauthorize the GLRI program for another five years at $500 million a year starting in 2027. The U.S. Senate, which passed a similar reauthorization bill that died at the end of 2024, is soon expected to introduce companion legislation for 2025.

“Our region has a reputation for wins and for defense of the Great Lakes,” Mr. Brammeier said. “The Great Lakes region has a long history of restorative projects and I don't think that's going to go away regardless who's president.”

He said it is “vital” that the network of congressional leaders, governors, and mayors built to support the Great Lakes continue to advocate strongly for the ecosystem.

“It’s going to be vital that those decision-makers continue to do that under the Trump administration and this new Congress, that the voices that are going to be heard in Washington step up and are accountable for clean water in the Great Lakes,” Mr. Brammeier said. “I think that friendly, mutual challenging of each other to do better is important.”

Similarly, Ms. Rubin — who leads a 20-year-old coalition that represents 185 environmental and conservation groups, zoos, museums, and other organizations — said she is cautiously optimistic but keeping close tabs on what happens over the next four years.

“It is going to be a wild ride; there is no sugarcoating that,” she said. “But we are ready for it.”

She said, though, that she expects to see across-the-board cuts to government agencies that support the Great Lakes and the environment in general, such as the EPA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The latter is part of the U.S. Department of Interior, which itself is expected to have large cuts in the western United States.

During Trump’s first term, he talked about closing the EPA’s regional headquarters in Chicago as a money-saving effort and having programs for the Great Lakes and other parts of the Midwest run out of another regional office.

That didn’t happen, but activists said it was a wake-up call for defending funding of government agencies.

“We understand very clearly that we can't just have restoration of our Great Lakes,” Ms. Rubin said. “We need to have protection and the agencies are a good front line for that.”

Mr. Brammeier agreed. He said it’s important to keep the EPA’s Region 5 headquarters and its Great Lakes National Program Office in Chicago.

“We know that personnel to some extent is policy,” he said. “The choices we make about how to run these programs, who's running them, and where they're being run from are really critical to get right for the Great Lakes.”

It’s probable the new administration will cut water infrastructure funding nationally and make cuts to some core Great Lakes programs, Ms. Rubin said.

Others have said the powers of the federal Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, and laws to protect wetlands are likely to be challenged.

The Trump administration’s focus on fossil fuels could affect the ongoing effort that Canadian-based pipeline giant Enbridge has to rebuild its Line 5 pipeline through the Straits of Mackinac and other environmentally sensitive areas, such as those in Wisconsin identified by tribal nations, Mr. Learner said.

He said the ELPC is involved in several of the Line 5 court proceedings.

In 2026, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is expected to finish an updated environmental impact statement that will help determine the future of Line 5.

“Obviously, the new administration will have a say in that,” Mr. Learner said. “It’s not the sort of thing that's easy to predict with the new administration.”

The three environmental activists said it will be interesting to see what Trump will do as pressure mounts on the climate change issue because of sheer economics, given multibillion-dollar losses caused by the wildfires in Los Angeles, record-breaking 100-degree days in Phoenix, and hurricanes becoming more intense and frequent in much of the South.

That could lead to more climate-based migration to the Great Lakes region, they said.

“There’s going to be some migration,” Mr. Learner said. “Some of the snowbirds are going to fly north.”

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said on Jan. 10 that 2024 ranks as the warmest year for Earth’s global temperature record, which dates back to 1850.

Potential migration to the Great Lakes region is another reason for stronger investments in water infrastructure, Ms. Rubin said.

“Coastal resiliency is another thing we're very concerned about as we see more people migrate to the Great Lakes and wanting to live along the shorelines,” she said.

The activists said they don’t expect much change on the issue of manure generated by large livestock facilities, which exacerbates the algae problem of western Lake Erie and other large bodies of water throughout the region. 

“This is an issue I don't think we're going to see much progress with in the Great Lakes region,” Ms. Rubin said.

While the threat of having Great Lakes water diverted to the parched Sunbelt has subsided, in part because of major advances in turning wastewater into tap water, large-scale uses within the Great Lakes basin are expected to become a bigger issue as more data centers are built.

“It's critical the Great Lakes states get on top of defending domestic water use,” Mr. Brammeier said.

First Published January 17, 2025, 10:30 p.m.