User:Valereee/Great Lakes Island Alliance

The Great Lakes Islands Alliance (GLIA) is an organization formed in 2017 to connect the year-round resident communities of islands in the Great Lakes areas of Canada and the United States. The group was developed with the leadership of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy and the Center for Rural Communities at Northland College and modeled after a similar project in Maine, the Island Institute.

It includes Lake Erie's Kelleys, Middle Bass, South Bass, and Pelee, Lake Michigan's Beaver and Washington Islands, Lake Ontario's Amherst, Howe, Simcoe, and Wolfe Islands, Lake Huron's Bois Blanc, Drummond, Les Cheneaux, Mackinac, Manitoulin, Neebish, St. Joseph, and Sugar Islands, Lake Superior's Madeline Island, and Lake St. Clair's Harsens Island.

The islands vary from primarily agricultural to major tourism destinations but face similar environmental and conservation issues, difficulties accessing health care, supplies, and the internet, and challenges in operating small schools and addressing aging populations. Tourism is a major economic driver for many of the GLIA islands; the year-round population of Mackinac is under 500 but swells to as many as 20,000 during the summer months. For islands with large seasonal populations or influxes of tourists, access to affordable housing for year-round residents is a common challenge. Water quality is an issue that connects the islands, as the Great Lakes flow eastward, which means that water pollution tends to accumulate for the further eastern islands.

The group holds an annual conference that rotates among the member islands. The first conference was held in 2017 at Beaver Island, followed by Madeline Island (2018), and Mackinac (2019), an interlude due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and South Bass (2022). The group also formed the Great Lakes Islands Basketball Tournament.