About Wisconsin's Healthy Lakes & Rivers
Healthy Lakes & Rivers includes 5 simple and inexpensive best practices that improve habitat and water quality on your shoreland property.
We encourage do-it-yourselfers to use these practices but have also created a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Healthy Lakes & Rivers grant for funding assistance. Local partners like qualified lake and river organizations and counties may apply for Healthy Lakes & Rivers funding on behalf of shoreland property owners, or they may choose to integrate the Healthy Lakes & Rivers initiative into their lake or river management, comprehensive planning, and shoreland zoning ordinance efforts.
Shoreland properties include land within 1,000 feet of a lake or 300 feet of a river.
Shoreland Property Owners
Interested in grant funding? Partner with an eligible grant applicant like a local unit of government or qualified lake or river organization for funding.
Learn more
PHOTO CONTEST to Celebrate 10 Years of Healthy Lakes & Rivers
What better way to celebrate 10 years of the Healthy Lakes & Rivers program than with a Photo Contest?! We want you to show us what you are doing to keep our lakes and rivers healthy!
Picture your favorite lake or river.
What time of day is it?
Are you along the shore? ...on a boat? ...in the water?
Can you hear frog calls or the buzz of a dragonfly's wings as it snatches a mosquito above you?
What do you see, feel, and smell?
In his book, For Love of Lakes, Darby Nelson wrote, "The vegetated zone of the lake is more than a place to delight the senses. It is a sacred garden. Loss of the garden plucks the pulsing green heart from the lake."
If you live near a lake or river, you probably already know that every change you make to Mother Nature's design will affect the waterway and the other animals that live there. Striking a balance between enjoying our waterways and loving them to death is serious business, and we'd love for you to show us how you're part of the solution!
PHOTO CATEGORIES
Healthy Transformations: Before/After
Ex: disturbed shoreline/restored shoreline with native flowers, shrubs, and trees; eroded shoreline/fortified with long-rooted native plants; erosion from runoff or runoff headed straight for the water/diverted and captured before getting to the lake or river
Wildlife Enjoying Habitat
Ex: heron in a native planting, frogs in a rain garden, fish swimming among the branches of a submerged tree
People Making Healthy Lakes & Rivers Together
Ex: planting a rain garden, fishing near fish sticks, enjoying your natural shoreline
Photos do not need to be from HLR grant-sponsored practices and can include DIY practices or existing natural shorelines.
Winners in each category (plus the most clever caption) will enjoy prizes including Healthy Lakes & Rivers swag, a free workshop at the Wisconsin Lakes and Rivers Convention, inclusion of photo(s) in a future Wisconsin Lakes and Rivers Partnership publication, and bragging rights!
DEADLINE: SEPTEMBER 30, 2025
If you are unable to use the form linked from the 'submit your photos' button above, but would still like to enter the contest, you can email your photos to healthylakeswi@google.com with the following information:
- Photographer name first/last
- Photo caption (pick which photo you’d like to enter – limit one per category)
- Where was this photo take (waterbody name and county)?
- Choose a category (examples on the website I linked above):
- - Healthy Transformation: Before & After photo
- - Wildlife Enjoying Habitat
- - People Making Healthy Lakes & Rivers together
- Which Healthy Lakes & Rivers Practice does your photo include (can include multiple):
- - Fish Sticks
- - Native Shoreline Planting
- - Rain Garden
- - Diversion Practice
- - Rock Infiltration
- Was this project funded through a HLR grant?
- Respond Yes/No to the following disclaimer:
I understand that the Wisconsin Lakes and Rivers Partnership reserves the right to use any image* entered in the contest, for non-commercial, educational, or promotional use, with attribution to the photographer. For example, prints may be created for a traveling display that promotes the Partnership, used in a publication, or by a lake or river organization. *Any photo depicting illegal activity in the state of Wisconsin is not eligible for this contest and will not be printed, displayed, or shared.
Action Plan
Wisconsin’s Healthy Lakes & Rivers Action Plan builds off the success of the 2014-2017 Healthy Lakes pilot and subsequent growth. Healthy Lakes & Rivers remains a collaborative team effort that depends on private and public shoreland property owners, businesses, and the Wisconsin Lakes and Rivers Partnership to promote and install relatively simple and inexpensive best practices benefiting habitat and water quality. This goal-oriented plan also includes funding, promotion, and evaluation strategies.
Purpose & Goals
Our Purpose
To protect and restore the health of our lakes and rivers by increasing property owner participation in habitat restoration and runoff and erosion control projects.
Our Goals
Participate
Increase property owner participation in Healthy Lakes & Rivers.
Engage
Maintain existing and engage new property owners as ambassadors of the Healthy Lakes & Rivers philosophy.
Support
Increase the number of grant applications submitted by project coordinators and/or grant applicants.
Partner
Grow a business partner network to promote Healthy Lakes & Rivers and provide technical and installation assistance.
Our Team
Collaboration and participation were key in this team effort to create Wisconsin’s Healthy Lakes & Rivers Action Plan and our statewide initiative. We would like to thank the staff, agency, business, and citizen partners, including Advanced Lake Leaders, who provided feedback for our team and the many partners who completed a customer survey and provided valuable comments during the public review of proposed Department of Natural Resources guidance.
Emily Moore
Burnett County
Scott Van Egeren
Wisconsin DNR
Tracy Arnold
Portage County
Lauren Haydon
Wisconsin DNR
Mike Engleson
Wisconsin Lakes
Tyler Betry
Sheboygan County
Amy Kowalski
Extension Lakes
UW-Stevens Point
Laura MacFarland
Wisconsin DNR
Brenda Nordin
Wisconsin DNR
Pat Brown
Barron County
Patrick Anderson
Wisconsin DNR
We would like to express our gratitude to the following contributors and information sources:
Tom Aartila
Raechelle Belli
Cheryl Clemens
Alex Delvoye
Karen Engelbretson
Patrick Goggin
John Haack
Dave Kafura
Jesha LaMarche
Maria LeFevre
Jane Malischke
Alison Mikulyuk
Eric Olson
Flory Olson
Tom Onofrey
Tim Parks
Carroll Schaal
Bret Shaw
Shelly Thomsen
Pamela Toshner
Scott Toshner
Victoria Ziegler
Bone Lake Management District
Maine Lake Smart Program
Michigan Shoreland Stewards Program
Vermont Lake Wise Program
Science of Healthy Lakes
The science of lake and river management has advanced significantly over the last few decades. We better understand natural science – how lakes and rivers function and the importance of shorelands to lake and river health, as well as the social science – how people and their attitudes and behaviors affect lakes and rivers.
Social Science