Happy Trails: Erie on Track to Join Great Lakes Project
Erie County shoreline integral to proposed Great Lakes Waterfront Trail
Dr. John Hartig lives and breathes the beauty, serenity, and majesty of the Great Lakes.
He also researches, teaches, writes books, and blogs about the science and ecology of the Great Lakes. He is a champion for strong stewardship of the Great Lakes, the largest freshwater system in the world.
Currently a visiting scholar at the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research in Windsor, Ontario, he's also working with the Midwestern Office of the Council of State Governments, the National Park Service, and Pennsylvania officials on an ambitious yet feasible plan to create the Great Lakes Waterfront Trail in the United States.
The U.S. trail will link to an existing trail, more than 3,600 kilometers long, in Canada. In the eight Great Lakes states, the aim is to increase tourism, boost local economies and promote cross-border travel and common cause with our northern neighbors.
Picture the joys of walking, hiking, or bicycling on these trails, to explore lakes and tributaries, support local coffee shops, restaurants, and bike liveries, visit open-air markets, soak up history and heritage, and strike up conversations with others who treasure the Great Lakes, including members of First Nations.
"That kind of thing is big business," Hartig said in a recent phone interview.
Just as importantly, linking the two Great Lakes trails is a tangible way to build support to protect the Great Lakes ecosystem.
"What a great opportunity to connect people to the Great Lakes," said Hartig. "In general, most of society has lost their connection to nature, and that holds true for the Great Lakes," he said.
"If you don't have any personal relationship with it, you don't have a sense of stewardship with it."
Erie County's shoreline is integral to the trail. That's why five students from the University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability, who are studying environmental policy and landscape architecture, are working to engage local people to identify, map, and build the Erie links.
About 28 percent of the work on Erie's shoreline – approximately 68 miles – has been completed. "So, we have some work to do," Hartig said.
"It's really important at the early stages to raise awareness and build excitement," said Hartig, who gave an Aug. 5 talk at the Jefferson Educational Society, "Working Towards a Binational Great Lakes Waterfront Trail."
Hartig is familiar with Erie. He has lectured at the JES previously and is leading a project with the International Association for Great Lakes Research to discover what has been learned and achieved by restoring Areas of Concern. That would include Presque Isle Bay, which the federal government designated as an Area of Concern in 1991 and delisted in 2013.
Born in Vancouver, Washington, Hartig's family moved to Michigan when he was a kid. "My family loved the outdoors. We grew up in a suburb of Detroit, 10 minutes [away], and we would go down and have picnics at Belle Island on the Detroit River. We would fish along the shoreline; we couldn't afford a boat."
He recalled that in the 1960s, the Detroit River was so polluted that the rocks on shore were coated with oil. "I would ask my dad, 'Why are we allowing this to go on?'"
Hartig pointed out that on Oct. 9, 1969, the Rouge River, which empties into the Detroit River, caught fire. For many Erie residents, a similar galvanizing incident about the horrors of water pollution had already occurred, when the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland caught fire on June 22, 1969.
Hartig learned early on that bodies of water need not be despoiled like those two rivers when his family ventured beyond the Detroit area for adventures at other rivers and smaller lakes in the Great Lakes region. "We would hike, fish, swim, and canoe," he said. "They were all beautiful, high-quality rivers and lakes, and the contrast between the Detroit River and Rouge River was night and day. I couldn't understand that. It didn't make sense to me."
Majoring in biology and chemistry at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti as an undergrad, Hartig went on to earn his master's in aquatic biology at Eastern Michigan in 1977. He received his Ph.D. in limnology (the study of bodies of freshwater) from the University of Windsor in Ontario in 1985.
Concentrating on aquatic biology and then limnology was a no-brainer. "I already had the bug. Not only did I want to learn about these lakes and the ecology and the limnology, I wanted to make a difference and get involved in the cleanup and stewardship."
His honors and accolades include being named a Fulbright Scholar at the Balsillie School of International Affairs in Waterloo, Ontario.
This graphic shows the outline of the proposed Great Lakes Waterfront Trail in the U.S.
The partnerships to develop the Erie County portion of the Great Lakes Waterfront Trail include the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the Pennsylvania Coastal Resources Management Program, and the Erie County Department of Planning and Community Development.
Christine Sit, a master's degree candidate at the University of Michigan studying environmental planning and policy, said she and the other four student team members could choose among many topics for their capstone graduation project. They decided to work on the Erie portion of the Great Lakes Trail.
"What drew us all to this project was our collective interest in ecological/environmental design and the importance of multi-use trails to their local communities," she said in an email. "Our studies in landscape architecture and environmental policy and planning and our varying experiences from fine art, ecological research, to real estate, have really come together to shape our work."
The students visited Erie in June and will return in November. They enjoyed "learning about unique historical, cultural, and ecological places" here, she said. When their project is completed by April 2026, they will have developed "a starting point, tools and resources for other Great Lake communities as they work on further developing their trail designs," she said.
How realistic is the full development of the trail in this era of tight budgets and polarized politics? Hartig is optimistic. The Indiana portion of the trail, the 60-mile Marquette Greenway, has been completed. Work in Illinois is done, too. Pennsylvania and Minnesota have been mapped, and Wisconsin, Ohio, and New York are started. Michigan will be done last.
"Maybe the light bulb will go on," Hartig said. "Trails and outdoor conservation is non-partisan. People love it. People love to vacation on and near water. They want to make memories there with their families," he said.
Hartig talked about success stories, including the expected opening this fall or in early 2026 of the new Gordie Howe International Bridge connecting Detroit and Windsor. "We lobbied for six years to get a pedestrian and bicycle lane on it. We won that," he said.
He then sketched out potential itineraries for the completed trail. For example, start on a bicycle at Point Pelee National Park in Ontario, then take a ferry to Pelee Island in Lake Erie, then another ferry to Put-in-Bay. Move on to Toledo with its "amazing greenways," then head north again to the Detroit Riverwalk.
You can learn more about Hartig and find links to his work by visiting johnhartig.com. Make sure you click on the link that takes you to his blog, "Great Lakes Moment," which he writes for Great Lakes Now, an in-depth reporting project by Detroit PBS. You can also watch his presentation to the Jefferson Educational Society on YouTube, entitled "Working Towards a Binational Great Lakes Waterfront Trail."
While you are savoring autumn days, you can also share ideas on what you'd like to see included Erie's portion of the Great Lakes Waterfront Trail. "People of Erie and Erie County can let us know what you like in a trail experience and any parks and greenspaces that could connect to the trail," said Sit, the UM student working on the trail. Email ideas to seas-glwt@umich.edu.
Also keep in mind that our country's 250th birthday will be observed in 2026. "Wouldn't it be great if the eight states could create the Great Lakes Waterfront Trail as one of the celebration points of our birthday?" Hartig asked.
Liz Allen is too old for a long-haul bicycle tour from Erie to Canada but eagerly anticipates walks along the Great Lakes Waterfront Trail in her lifetime.
