Transform Your Shoreline With TWF's Healthy Shorelines Workshop
Transform Your Shoreline With TWF's Healthy Shorelines Workshop
Posted
Staff Report-
Transform Your Shoreline With TWF's Healthy Shorelines WorkshopWINONA LAKE – Find out how to transform your lawn and lakeshore into a healthy shoreline by attending The Watershed Foundation's Healthy Shorelines Workshop on June 1 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Winona Lake Senior Center.
During this free workshop, you will learn about healthy shoreline best practices. This workshop is ideal for anyone at any lake – regardless of where the lake is located, according to a news release from The Watershed Foundation.
"Our award-winning Healthy Shorelines initiative educates homeowners on shoreline projects that reduce erosion, decrease runoff, and improve water quality and habitat," said Lyn Crighton, executive director of The Watershed Foundation. "Transforming your lakeshore into a healthy shoreline might mean refacing existing concrete seawalls, installing new bioengineered or glacial stone seawalls, planting lake-friendly landscaping and more.
"During our workshop, you'll learn what steps you need to take to preserve your shoreline while also benefiting water quality," Crighton said.
Crighton said the accepted norm on many of the lakes is to have a mowed lawn up to the edge of a concrete seawall. Concrete seawalls are not natural or healthy for lakes. In fact, they disrupt the critical ribbon of life on lake shorelines, create added wave action and stir up sediments on the bottom of the lake. The resuspension of nutrients and material in the lakes is a major cause of nasty algae growth.
Healthy shorelines (and adjacent lawns) have an abundance of plants both on the land and in the water. Glacial stone (or rock) seawalls are an improvement over concrete because they help slow wave action. Natural shorelines can be eautiful and easy to maintain without interfering with recreation.
Residents of Winona Lake are eligible for up to $1,000 in grant funding through a partnership between TWF and the Winona Lake Preservation Association. Those who attend the workshop will receive top priority. To be eligible, the project site must be located on Winona Lake, and the applicant must pay at least 25% of the total cost of the project.
Door prizes will be awarded during the workshop, including a one-year membership to the Indiana Lakes Management Society (ILMS) and free registration to next year’s ILMS Annual Conference on March 21-22, 2024, at Pokagon State Park.
For additional information about the workshop or to register, email paige@watershedfoundation.org or call The Watershed Foundation at 574-834-3242.
