United States Coast Guard U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

REGIONAL LISTENING SESSION FOR NATIONAL OCEAN POLICY

GREAT LAKES REGION
13 JUNE 2011 - CHICAGO IL

BACKGROUND
On July 19, 2010, President Obama announced his commitment to implementing the first National Policy for the Stewardship of the Ocean, Our Coasts, and the Great Lakes. The National Ocean Council is now developing strategic action plans to achieve nine national priority objectives that address some of the most pressing challenges facing these areas.

The National Ocean Council will host regional public listening sessions about these efforts and thereby provide opportunities for public input and comments as it develops the strategic action plans.

There are three main objectives for these listening sessions: 1) to gain an understanding of the actions and issues most important to Americans whose lives are affected by the oceans, coasts, and Great Lakes; 2) to use this knowledge to inform the actions in each of the nine strategic plan outlines, and; 3) to offer a forum for the public to learn about the National Ocean Policy. The input and comments from these listening sessions will be considered in the development of the draft strategic action plans.

LISTENING SESSION
The U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will co-host the Great Lakes Regional Listening Session on Monday, June 13, 2011, at the Ralph H. Metcalfe Federal Building, 77 West Jackson Boulevard Chicago, IL 60604. The session will be run from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. CDT. In-person attendees will be able to submit written and verbal comments. The listening session will also be available through a webinar. Webinar participants will be able to post comments and questions through the webinar. There is no charge for these events.

The listening session will begin with a plenary session that will provide a general overview of the Strategic Action Plan outlines. The plenary will be followed by two concurrent breakout sessions where in-person and webinar participants will be able to provide comments or ask questions about outlines. Final agenda and speaker bios (updated 6/10/11).

Due to time constraints, the National Ocean Council members may not be able to provide answers to all of the questions submitted in person or on the webcast. However, all comments and questions will be forwarded to the National Ocean Council for consideration when the Strategic Action Plans are completed.

In-person and webinar participants should read the Strategic Action Plan outlines ahead of time. In depth presentations on the outlines will not be provided at the listening sessions.

Documents