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.