A key activity of the LEMN has been to convene a series of workshops with the aims of:

• summarizing the most current understanding of issues of emerging interest or concern
• describing what is and what isn’t known about the issue
• developing a research strategy that will (1) address the most pressing research issues, and (2) generate data needed to resolve uncertainties in the fundamental management issues (monitoring)

Origin of Workshop Series

The workshop series are organized under a number of themes. A "Prevailing Issues Workshop" held on November 23-24, 1998 at the University of Windsor was the first event of the Lake Erie Millennium Plan. It brought together Lake Erie managers, researchers, and other interested parties to begin to identify and amalgamate the major questions and management issues facing Lake Erie. To ensure input from a broad spectrum of the Lake Erie population a survey was sent to various agencies to solicit submissions of issues that their agency felt important to Lake Erie. Respondents were asked to score each issue according to the following areas:

• impact in relation to: ecological/environmental considerations, economic cost/benefits, human health, and societal considerations
• priority assigned to the issue by their agency
• time to significant impact
• basic understanding of the issue
• ongoing monitoring effort
• amenability to management/amelioration

Workshop Series Themes

This initial call for issues generated independent responses from 35 individuals/organizations and 90 identified issues/topics. The issues were evaluated by workshop participants who amalgamated the submissions into 48 topics grouped into 7 general subject areas or themes:

1. Eutrophication
• limits to production
• land-use issues
2. Exotic species
• dreissenid mussels
• other exotic species
3. System processes (diversity, stability, trophic transfer)
4. Habitat condition
5. Population dynamics/Exploitation Group
6. Contaminants
7. Other issues
• human health
• administrative/policy

Initiated Workshop Series

The information gained from the "Prevailing Issues Workshop" was used to highlight areas for attention at the "Lake Erie at the Millennium - Changes, Trends, and Trajectories" binational conference held in April 1999. The conference brought together leading researchers to address various Lake Erie concerns. The Lake Erie Millennium Network Research Needs workshops then built upon the priority issues outlined during the "Prevailing Issues Workshop".

The seven themes described above have become numbered research series. To date, four series of 'Research Needs' workshops have been initiated. Pages on the LEMN website provide a justification for each workshop, copies of agendas, PowerPoint presentations (where appropriate), and summary findings. Click on one of the series below for more details: