Adaptive Management Strategies for the Domestic Action Plan for Lake Erie

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) requires guidance in developing an Adaptive Management Plan as part of our commitment to move ahead with an adaptive management process to support the implementation of the Canada Ontario Lake Erie Action Plan (CO LEAP). The CO LEAP adaptive management process will be used by ECCC to evaluate the effectiveness of the implementation of actions in the plan by providing a structured mechanism to iteratively review and adapt actions as necessary in order to achieve Canada’s phosphorus reduction targets to reduce harmful and nuisance algal blooms and hypoxia in Lake Erie. The adaptive management process includes the following elements: implementation of actions, collaboration with partners and stakeholders, monitoring, evaluation and adjustment of actions. It is the framework for ECCC to understand the managed watersheds in the Lake Erie Basin, to evaluate the implementation of the Lake Erie Action Plan, and a formal mechanism to utilize what ECCC learns from monitoring tributaries and to adjust actions to reduce phosphorus. The Adaptive Management Plan will provide for ECCC a timeline and details for the key elements required to carry out the process.

The Contractor will provide ECCC with guidance and recommendations for developing the Adaptive Management Plan including a timeline, performance indicators, collaborative learning, the use of models and the governance and operation of the Adaptive Management Task Team. The work will be based on a jurisdictional review, a review of the ongoing activities in the CO LEAP and the Contractor’s expertise in this area.

In consultation with ECCC, the Contractor shall provide recommendations for developing the Adaptive Management Plan based on a jurisdictional review and ECCC activities underway to implement the CO LEAP. The adaptive management plan will guide ECCC in carrying out the Adaptive Management process.

Specifically, the work of the Contractor will consist of four major tasks:

• Review of adaptive management plans from other jurisdictions (based on literature and interviews), for nutrient management and other water management issues;
• Based on the jurisdictional review, the provide a list or recommendations to ECCC for the adaptive management plan;
• Review the activities already under way to implement the CO LEAP ; and
• Provide a final set of recommendations for the adaptive management plan.