The Lake Erie Plains ecoregion is a flat area in the American Midwest that's located in parts of Indiana, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and lower Michigan. These same eastern Great Lakes Plains continue northward in Michigan, first along Lake Erie and then along Lake Huron. Thus, in this northern part of the Lake Erie Plains ecoregion within Michigan, the ecoregion is known as the Lake Huron Plains.

This ecoregion is almost completely flat, with some sand dunes and terminal moraines which remained after the glaciation. The original flora of the region was a mix of beech forests, elm-ash swamps and mixed oak forests, however, most all of the original vegetation has been destroyed and what forest that remain has an entirely different character.

This ecoregion is purported to be one of the more severely altered and degraded ecoregions within the United States. Swamps have been drained and streams have been channeled to make the area more suitable for agriculture and urbanization, which in doing, destroyed vast expanses of natural wetlands. Most all of the rural areas is used for agriculture, mostly of corn, soybeans, assorted vegetable and livestock.

There are a lot of heavy industry and urbanization in this ecoregion with the largest cities in this ecoregion are Detroit, MI Cleveland and Toledo, OH, Erie, PA, and Buffalo and Rochester, NY. Some residential areas have been developed which extends to the lake shore in many places.

The Great Lakes system is the largest supply of freshwater in the world, which includes five large lakes, one small lake, four connecting channels and the Saint Lawrence Seaway. The large lakes are Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario, which hold about 90 percent of the freshwater in the United States and about twenty percent of the world′s freshwater. There are, according to recent population poles, about forty million residents of the United States and Canada that rely upon this system for clean drinking water.

The Nipigon River flows down from Lake Nipigon and enters Helens Lake. From the southern most tip of Helens Lake, Nipigon River continues south under the Nipigon River Bridge. This bridge is a triple span cable stayed bridge which carrys Highways 11 and 17, which are they combine to form part of the Trans-Canada Highway (49.0196, -88.2504), across the Nipigon River near Nipigon, Ontario. Immediately after emerging from under the highway, the Nipigon river flows under the Canadian Pacific Railway Nipigon River Railway bridge (49.019353,-88.250535), a single track rail bridge, which is a Warren deck truss fixed structure, built in 1905 and rehabilitated in 1910.

Then, the Nipigon River, traveling further south enters the north westernmost arm of Nipigon Bay, which Bay is the northernmost arm of Lake Superior. Their combined water flow past Whitefish Point into Whitefish Bay and then exits Lake Superior by way of Saint Marys River. Soon, this river reaches Sault Ste. Marie and flows under the Sault Ste Marie International Railroad Bridge, originally built in 1887 to facilitate rail traffic from Canada to the US. This rail bridge has nine steel truss Camelback spans, one swing bridge, two double leaf, vertical lift bascule bridges and one girder portage bridge. This railroad bridge carries a singe line of rail track. The Saint Marys River then splits into multiple channels as it traverses several small lakes after which passes between several island and enters a northwest arm of Lake Huron.

Upon arriving at the southernmost point of Lake Huron, water flows out of the lake into Saint Clair River and immediately flows under the Blue Water Bridge, a twin three lane metal bridges, the westbound one is a cantilever through truss arch bridge, built in 1938, and the eastbound on is a continuous tied arch, built in 1999 and both of which carry′s IH 69 and IH 94 from the US and Kings Highway 402 from Canada over the St Clair River. The Saint Clair River next enters Lake Saint Clair.

Lake Saint Clair is a small lake located between the state of Michigan and the province of Ontario, Canada. This lake flows westward into Detroit River and passes by Peche Island (Canada) and Belle Island (United States) and between the cities of Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan. The Detroit River then flows southward between several island and into Lake Erie where the water flow moves southeast through several more island including: Kelleys Island, Isle St George, Middle Bass Island, South Bass Island, and other smaller ones.

After passing through these islands, the direction of water flow turns northeast towards Buffalo, New York, where Lake Erie arrives at its outlet, the Niagara River.

The Niagara River flows from its source, Lake Erie at elevation 569 feet, northbound for 36 miles forming the border between Ontario, Canada to the West and New York, US to the east until it reaches its mouth at Lake Ontario, at elevation 243 feet.

After traversing Lake Ontario, the waterway enters the Saint Lawrence River and travels in a northeast direction to the Saint Lawrence Seaway, then the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and finally into the North Atlantic Ocean.