How does your shoreline measure up? Take this survey!

Natural shorelines are a key to healthy lakes. The Wisconsin DNR now helps you check the healthiness of your property’s shoreline by taking the Shoreland Evaluation Survey. This free interactive survey walks you through your property from the upland area where your home or cabin stands, through the area near and on the shoreline, and into the water, so you can see how well you’re doing with best practices for habitat restoration, runoff and erosion control, and other ways to care for your lake or river.

This “smart survey” will lead you down a unique path, depending on your answers, and create a score as you go. Using this tool is voluntary. You can register for an account or take the survey anonymously. But there’s a benefit to registering: You can save your results from the first time through, then come back after you have made changes to your property and see how your score has improved.

If you wish, you can share your results with a partner organization, such as a lake association or your municipality or county. Your responses won’t be used for any regulatory purpose. The survey is designed solely to help you become a better lake steward. By going through the survey, you’ll become more aware of the components of shoreland health, and get access to information about the Healthy Lakes & Rivers best practices, and related grants available for shoreland improvements.  Visit https://survey.healthylakeswi.com/.