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Taking stock of success and building social indicators for community impact in the St. Louis River Estuary
Citation:
Klasic, Meghan R., T. Hollenhorst, AND M. Wick. Taking stock of success and building social indicators for community impact in the St. Louis River Estuary. St. Louis River Summit, Superior, WI, March 03 - 05, 2026.
Impact/Purpose:
The impact of this research is to develop a shared vision of thriving communities in the St. Louis River Estuary—and to begin developing relevant social indicators that can be used to track community impacts and benefits. This work contributes to a broader project analyzing social indicators for Great Lakes ecosystem clean-ups.
Description:
Scientists, artists, engineers, decision-makers, business owners, advocates, and residents have dedicated countless hours to remediating, restoring, and revitalizing the St. Louis River estuary through the Great Lakes Areas of Concern (AOC) program. Biological, chemical, and physical data collection shows marked improvement in water quality, sediment quality, wildlife habitat, and increased enjoyment of the river. As work continues outside of the AOC program, decision-makers and environmental managers seek to understand how environmental investments in ecological remediation impact communities and community access to improved park, lake, and other public spaces. Developing and tracking measurable quantitative and qualitative social indicators is one method for capturing community impact of environmental work. However, not all indicators are created equal. What is relevant to one community or region of the estuary may not align with another community’s perspective. Even within a single environmental project area (e.g., Allouez Bay), there may be indicators that are more and less appropriate for measuring community impact. To grapple with these questions and to begin identifying a set of social indicators that can be adapted to different projects, regions, scales, and scopes in the SLRE, we are hosting an active networking session at the Summit. We invite you to join us to 1) reflect on a shared vision of what success looks like for a thriving estuary landscape and community, 2) help develop a set of potential social indicators for measuring community impact across projects and geographies, and 3) begin building a SLRE social indicator workgroup. The output of this session will inform ongoing work in the SLRE and provide fodder for a larger Great Lakes effort to develop a tool and roadmap of social indicators.