In an effort to help citizen leaders address shoreland management issues, Minnesota Waters has prepared a set of Healthy Shoreland factsheets, outlined citizen-led success stories for improved shoreland protection, and compiled a list of Healthy Shoreland resources. These resources were designed to empower citizens to act on, not just understand, the challenges of shoreland management. Members of Minnesota Waters may request an alternate format of these resources from carriea@minnesotawaters.org and include them in their own association newsletters and handouts. This project was made possible with funding from the McKnight Foundation.
Healthy Shoreland Factsheets
- How to Create Rain Gardens
- Lake Classifications
- Lake Monitoring: General information about monitoring a lake
- Septic Systems and Water Quality
- Shoreland Management Questions
- Stormwater Runoff
- Vegetation Buffers: Protecting Our Shorelands and Waters
Citizen-led Shoreland Protection Success Stories
- The Big Birch Lake Association: Citizens Buffer out Nutrient Pollutants
- Flute Reed Partnership: People protecting the North Shore
- Lake Hallett Association: A Story of Passion, Persistence, and Protection
- Taking Care of the Cannon River
- Today's Action for Tomorrow's Vision
- Volunteers Use Technology and Kayaks to Clean Up Rivers
If you have a success story where citizens took action and improved aspects of your body of water, we are interested in your story. In particular, we are looking for success story topics such as: Water Quality, Invasive Species, Development Pressures, Shoreline Restoration, Wildlife Conservation, Local Government Issues/Regulations, and Public Education. Your article will be reviewed by staff and may be included in our online "Citizen Success Stories" directory within the Minnesota Waters website.
For more information about sharing your "Success Story," contact Carrie Maurer-Ackerman
Additional Resources for Healthy Shorelands
- General/Comprehensive Shoreland Management Resources
- Management Resources
- Laws and Regulation Resoures
- Resources for Organizing Associations
- Lakescaping and Vegetation Buffer Resources
- Water Quality Monitoring Resources
- Recreation, Invasive Species and Aquatic Life Resources
- Erosion, Runoff, and Impervious Surface Resources
- Household Product, Waters Conservation and Septic System Resources
- Wetland, Farmland and Planning & Development Resources
Score Your Shore: a citizen shoreline description survey
available from the MN DNR
Score Your Shore is a tool to assess habitat conditions of developed lake lots. The protocol is designed for use by lakeshore property owners to self-assess habitat and stewardship on their land and adjacent aquatic areas. This tool may also be used by organizations, such as lake associations, to assess multiple sites on a lake. Score Your Shore provides an objective and systematic method to assess the type, quantity and quality of the existing shoreland habitat.
The Score Your Shore tool will enable you to:
- Assess the amount of habitat at developed lake sites
- Generate awareness of what makes a high quality functioning shoreline buffer
- Provide a system to recognize landowners with functioning shoreline buffers.
The following self-guided materials are available to view and download, free of charge, on the DNR website: http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/scoreyourshore/index.html
Groups may adapt these basic materials to meet their specific assessment needs.
