Michigan’s Democratic governor is promoting bipartisan efforts to set barriers to protect native species of the Great Lakes and recreation and tourism.
President Donald Trump signed a memorandum on Friday to promote the construction of a system of barriers to stop the migration of carp in Asia into the Great Lakes basin.
How they reached the Great Lakes area remains uncertain. One theory assumes that floods washed fish from breeding ponds at fish farms in the Midwest.
Asian carp is considered an invasive species that poses a major danger to the Great Lakes ecosystem, the world’s largest source of fresh surface water. Eating greedily on everything from plant life to other fish, they became lattices and soon became almost extinct from native species such as walleyes, yellow perchs and lake-like white fish.
According to a fact sheet on May 9, “The chances of entry into the Great Lakes (of Asian carp) are irreparably damaging to fishing, boating, recreation and tourism, supporting tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars a year.”
The Great Lakes are an important means of transportation for domestic and international commerce, and a source of high quality drinking water for millions of Americans.
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The project to stop the migration of carp in Asia to the Great Lakes was approved through the Water Resources Development Act of 2020.
Much of the work will be in Illinois.
So far, the federal government has spent $274 million on an effort called the Brandon Road project, with few results, according to Fact Sheet.
Provides propulsion
To move things forward, Trump requires all federal agencies to streamline all the permits and environmental reviews they need. He also placed a deadline of July 1, 2025. Illinois has placed a 30-day deadline for obtaining the land needed to begin construction of the barrier and being given local permission to promote the Army’s engineers squad.
The memorandum also directs the Environmental Protection Agency to remove invasive carp from upper Illinois waterways near Lake Michigan and prioritize infrastructure projects to maintain existing barriers to prevent invasion into the Great Lakes Basin.
The president has also adopted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to prioritize research and management for the prevention, removal and control of invasive car and other aquatic invasive species in the Great Lakes.
Bipartisan support
The president’s interest in long-dormant projects may have been kickstarted during a recent visit to the White House by Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a speaker at Republican Matt Hall. Both leaders strongly advocated for rapid action on the project.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer at the White House Oval Office on April 9, 2025. Anna Money Maker/Getty Images
Whitmer said the president’s actions were a “huge step” for him and a “big deal” for Michigans.
According to Whitmer, the revitalization of the Asian Koi Project was due to “good old teamwork.”
She said of her cooperation with Trump, “We’ll talk to everyone and work together to get things done.”
Illinois Gov. JB Pretzker has been holding the project back for months on concerns about federal government budget cuts, but has since said that the administration has received ample guarantees from Trump that it will increase its share of funding for the project.
