Towards a balance between responsibilities and rights to the ecosystemic goods and services of our Great Lakes — St. Lawrence River basin

• Governance of demands on the Basin's aquatic ecosystem has been complicated.
• Crises have led to collaboration between bureaucratic and participatory forms.
• Episodes of multi-level multi-jurisdictional arrangements have emerged.
• A major successful episode was the Great Laurentian Spring of 1968–93.
• A new major collaborative episode may be brewing currently.