Principles to live by
March 24, 2023

Let’s face it: Protecting a lake is hard, especially at a time when development pressure is perhaps greater than ever. Lake associations struggle from shortages of funds and in many cases fewer volunteers than would be ideal. These essentials aside, a good case can be made that success in lake advocacy and preservation starts with a set of guiling principles. Here, the Black Lake Preservation Society (near Midland, Michigan) has a good model to follow. Their Guiding Principles are (and I am mostly quoting directly from their website):
- The right time to preserve and protect a lake is when it is healthy, because there are few practical ways to restore a lake once it is impaired,
- To maximize our impact, we can replicate what other groups have done. There are over 1,000 lakes of 100 acres or more in Michigan and similar numbers in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Solutions out there can be leveraged toward our needs, and it is critical that we find them and reuse them. All of our effort must be additive.
- Lake property owners cannot “outsource” their responsibility to protect the lake by simply writing a check to a group that takes responsibility for the lake’s health. People need to care enough to listen, learn, and engage if our goals are to be met.
Rarely have I seen the essence of lake stewardship capsulized so effectively and concisely. Maybe principles like these have a place on the website of every lake association.