The Lake Where You Live

Near the end of the movie “The American President,” the lead character played by Michael Douglas says, “I can tell you without hesitation: Being president of this country is entirely about character.”

After more than a decade working in the lake stewardship arena, I would suggest, without hesitation, that protecting our lakes is entirely about people.

If you’re deeply involved in a lake association, lake district or other lake stewardship group, no doubt you’ve noticed how much depends on the alignment of all lake property owners around your organization’s mission and goals.

It doesn’t matter how much we know about limnology, water chemistry, fisheries biology, aquatic plants, or other scientific topics if we can’t communicate effectively with the people around the lake whose choices involving their properties affect water quality, scenic values, and ecosystem health, for good or ill.

In my presentations to lake groups I often ask: What is the greatest threat to our lakes? Common responses include invasive species, nutrient pollution, shoreline habitat destruction, failing septic systems, excessive and unwise development.

But in an important sense, the greatest threat to our lakes is us. That’s because what we do on our properties — on the land — significantly affects what happens to the lake. We all want to develop our properties to suit out chosen lifestyles. But we need to do so in ways that consider the impact on the health of the water.

So, how can leaders of a lake association get property owners to line up behind goals like protecting the lake ecosystem and the Northwoods scenery and ambience that attract so many people to the this area?

Experience has shown us approaches that assuredly don’t work. One is getting up on a soap box and preaching about right and wrong things to on a lakeshore. Another is to scold or shame people for doing things that are detrimental or of which we don’t approve. Another is to rely solely on one-way communications like brochures and fact sheets.

Research shows that what can work is to communicate personally with people in terms of what they themselves value. A key component of that is the value of the property — in which a healthy lake and scenic beauty play significant roles. 

People will be more willing to do things like capture runoff on the land, create a buffer strip of natural vegetation along the shoreline, limit the cutting of trees, and minimize the use of fertilizer and pesticides if they believe doing so protects an essential asset they own. 

A key step in such communication is to boost association membership, which sadly often languishes around 50 to 75 percent of lakefront owners. Bringing people on board is not a matter best left to websites, newsletters and mailers.

Instead, it’s an exercise in personal recruitment: One home, one screen porch, one pontoon boat, one pier, one fire pit at a time. Difficult, yes. But also quite essential.

Ted Rulseh is a writer, author and lake advocate who lives on Birch Lake in Oneida County. His new book, “Ripple Effects,” has been released by UW Press. You can learn about it by visiting his website at https://thelakeguy.net.