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2022 Great Lakes Islands Summit

October 2 - 5, 2022


The Great Lakes Islands Summit (October 2 - 5, 2022; Registration closed on September 16, 2022) is being jointly hosted by the Lake Erie Islands of Kelleys, Middle Bass, Pelee, and South Bass. South Bass Island (also known as Put-in-Bay) will be the anchor island. We are excited to have a full agenda (coming soon!) that includes visiting five islands (the four previous ones listed plus Gibraltar Island) and discussing critical issues including infrastructure, tourism, land conservation, and water quality. The $100 registration fee includes your meals and all transportation between islands for the event. The event will begin at 5pm on Sunday, October 2 with reception and dinner, and conclude on Wednesday at 4:30pm. Any island residents are welcome to attend. The annual summit also serves as the member meeting of the Great Lakes Islands Alliance (GLIA), a bi-national network of Great Lakes island communities.


The agenda will include a keynote presentation on Monday morning followed by a morning tour of South Bass Island and then an afternoon tour of Middle Bass Island with lunch there. Tuesday events will include a morning tour of Gibraltar Island and an afternoon tour of Kelleys Island, with lunch there. Wednesday we are planning a tour to Pelee Island if possible. A more detailed agenda will be available soon.

Additional information on how to get to the summit, where to stay, and more will be included in your summit registration email, after you register. For questions and more information, please contact Peter Huston at phuston@glialliance.org.

Registration closed on September 16, 2022. 

The 2022 GLIA Summit host committee seeks sponsors and donors to support the 4th Annual Great Lakes Islands Summit!

Click for Sponsorship Information
Click to Become a Sponsor
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Great Lakes islands are critically important places for a variety of bird species, such as land birds (e.g., sparrows, warblers), waterbirds (e.g., herons, loons, plovers), and waterfowl (e.g., ducks, geese, swans). Unfortunately, these species face a variety of threats on a local, regional, and global scale. Maintaining a variety of habitats – forests, wetlands, grasslands, beaches, and even residential backyards – will play a role in bird conservation by providing feeding, nesting, wintering, and migratory stopover sites. This webinar was originally held on April 7, 2022


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Our first webinar, "Building Leadership to Strengthen Island Community Resilience"

was held on February 24, 2022 and featured Kate Tagai of the Island Institute in Maine
speaking about their development of a leadership framework for islands
and the successes they have had with it. Click on the above image to view it.

Click on the map below for a quick overview of the member islands in the alliance. More detail and more photos are in the island showcase below.
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Our mission


The Great Lakes Islands Alliance encourages relationship building, fosters information exchange, and leverages resources to address shared challenges and embrace opportunities to benefit islands.
Since 2017, the Great Lakes Islands Alliance has been connecting islanders and amplifying their voices. As core functions, GLIA hosts robust Zoom discussions every month plus the annual Great Lakes Islands Summit. Our membership is now over 150 people from 19 different islands - the crown jewels of the Great Lakes!

Donate to GLIA
We'd like to thank our major 2022 sponsors who contributed to our plans and goals for the Island Summit and other activities.
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HEALTHY, SUSTAINABLE ISLAND COMMUNITIES.

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Links for information and registration for the Fall, 2022 Islands Summit will be available early in 2022. The summit will be based on
South Bass Island in Lake Erie.

The Great Lakes contain the largest, most diverse collection of freshwater islands in the world. Of the 32,000 islands, nearly twenty continue to host communities of people, typically a mix of year-round and seasonal residents and visitors.

While present-day island communities are uniquely distinct from one another in character, traditions, and geography, they share a number of complex, inter-related challenges, including: access to public services and quality education; supporting a diversified economy; managing natural, cultural, and historical resources across public and private boundaries; and changing demographics (size, age, seasonality, ownership, economic status, etc.).

These challenges are hurdles, not immovable barriers. In fact, some island communities have already independently developed their own “island solutions to island challenges.” Island communities are finding they often have more in common with one another than to their adjacent mainland. There is great value in islanders learning from other islanders about best practices that work, as well as those that don’t.

Great Lakes Islands Alliance Programs

GLIA In the News

Island Updates

The monthly GLIA call on April 1, 2020 was dedicated to sharing coronavirus information (status, good ideas, specific challenges) from each island. GLIA members from each community were asked to provide an informal, 5-10 min update. Note: with a few exceptions, the summaries below are not a verbatim, nor are they intended to represent a full or formal or fully vetted record from each island community. Please contact GLIA leads from each island for clarifications.

Reports from past great lakes islands summits

ISLAND SHOWCASE

Learn more about our partner islands.

Resources & Webinar

Resources

Webinar: Great Lakes Water Levels 101

Learn about Great Lakes water levels from one of the leading experts in the region, Andrew Gronewold, PhD, PE, physical scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)–Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory and adjunct professor at the University of Michigan.
watch webinar
webinar Q&A

2019 Great Lakes Islands Basketball Tournament

The tournament was held on Dec. 6-7, 2019 on Mackinac Island. Teams were from Washington Island (Lake Michigan), Mackinac Island (Lake Huron), South Bass Island (Lake Erie) and Beaver Island (Lake Michigan).