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Northland College receives two new GLRI grants totaling roughly $500,000

August 19, 2011

Two new grants totaling close to one-half million dollars were awarded to Northland College by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for local and regional efforts to protect watersheds and maintain existing habitats under the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI). Northland College will receive $300,000 to provide outreach to landowners for improved watershed protection. A second grant in the amount of $173,000 was awarded to the Lake Superior Binational Forum program housed at Northland College for a Lakewide Management Plan. The award announcement on Wednesday brings the total number of GLRI grants received by Northland to five since September 2010.

"I'm very excited that Northland College received two out of the eight grant awards in Wisconsin announced by the EPA," says Michael A. Miller, Northland College President. "These awards are examples of how our students and faculty engage in research and learning focused on solving our most pressing environmental challenges."

Previous grants awarded to Northland College through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative include a $192,116 grant to conduct beach sanitary surveys, $251,414 to fund regional habitat restoration and $144,623 over the next two years for restoration and outreach projects conducted through the Lake Superior Binational Forum.

"The President's Great Lakes Restoration Initiative aims to rehabilitate the ecosystem that is the foundation of this region's economy," said Cameron Davis in a press release, the EPA's Senior Advisor to the Administrator on the Great Lakes. "For the regional economy to thrive, we need to accelerate our efforts to comprehensively attack problems such as habitat loss, invasive species and pollution that causes algae that choke beaches and fish life. Today's investment will help make that happen."

Northland College is expected to receive the grant funding by October 2011.