Program
The 2026 Great Lakes Coastal Symposium will take place October 26 - 28, 2026, in Huron, OH, at the Sawmill Creek Resort.
Schedule of Events
The following is subject to change, please check back regularly for updates.
Please note: A few conference program items require pre-registration to attend, though there is no additional fee to participate. These include the Bird Walks, Stewardship Event, and Field Trips. Be sure to select these when registering to reserve your spot, as space may be limited.
Stewardship Event - Monday
Get your hands dirty for a good cause. The Stewardship Event highlights the importance of community-based coastal restoration by getting Symposium participants directly involved in hands-on habitat restoration work. Erie MetroParks is designing a new "window on wildlife" education space at their Nature Center, and participants will help with on-site stewardship activities — including site preparation and planting native seeds for a pollinator garden.
Space is limited and pre-registration is required, save your spot when you register for the symposium.
Bird Walk - Tuesday or Wednesday
Start your morning with a walk through Sheldon's Marsh State Nature Preserve, a 472-acre haven home to nearly 300 bird species and diverse wildflowers. Located right next to the conference resort, it's one of the last undeveloped shoreline sections in the Sandusky Bay region. The preserve spans a remarkable range of habitats — old fields, hardwood forests, woodland swamps, cattail marshes, barrier sand beaches, and open-water lakes — remnants of the lake-marsh-forest ecosystem that once stretched for thousands of acres along Lake Erie's western basin. The walk is an easy, flat ~3-mile round trip from the resort.
Space is limited and pre-registration is required, save your spot when you register for the symposium.
Field Trips - Tuesday
This year's conference offers four field trips for attendees to choose from. Titles and descriptions for each are listed below. Please note that pre-registration is required to attend, and capacity for each field trip is limited — be sure to reserve your spot early when registering for the symposium. Details about the field trips can be found HERE
Stewardship Event - Monday
Get your hands dirty for a good cause. The Stewardship Event highlights the importance of community-based coastal restoration by getting Symposium participants directly involved in hands-on habitat restoration work. Erie MetroParks is designing a new "window on wildlife" education space at their Nature Center, and participants will help with on-site stewardship activities — including site preparation and planting native seeds for a pollinator garden.
Space is limited and pre-registration is required, save your spot when you register for the symposium.
Bird Walk - Tuesday or Wednesday
Start your morning with a walk through Sheldon's Marsh State Nature Preserve, a 472-acre haven home to nearly 300 bird species and diverse wildflowers. Located right next to the conference resort, it's one of the last undeveloped shoreline sections in the Sandusky Bay region. The preserve spans a remarkable range of habitats — old fields, hardwood forests, woodland swamps, cattail marshes, barrier sand beaches, and open-water lakes — remnants of the lake-marsh-forest ecosystem that once stretched for thousands of acres along Lake Erie's western basin. The walk is an easy, flat ~3-mile round trip from the resort.
Space is limited and pre-registration is required, save your spot when you register for the symposium.
Field Trips - Tuesday
This year's conference offers four field trips for attendees to choose from. Titles and descriptions for each are listed below. Please note that pre-registration is required to attend, and capacity for each field trip is limited — be sure to reserve your spot early when registering for the symposium. Details about the field trips can be found HERE