MWA facilitates work through various grant funding programs. One such program is Lake Wise, run by the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). The Lake Wise program incentivizes property owners to make modifications to their property that are known to protect individual lakes and the health of the greater watershed. 

MWA Promotes Lake-Friendly Practices for Water Quality. The Memphremagog Watershed Association (MWA) is working to re-naturalize shorelines, restore aquatic habitat, and improve water quality in the Northeast Kingdom by promoting lake shoreland Best Management Practices (BMP). MWA facilitates this work through various grant funding programs. 

One such program is Lake Wise, run by the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). The Lake Wise program incentivizes property owners to make modifications to their property that are known to protect individual lakes and the health of the greater watershed. Lake Wise seeks to inform landowners that common lakeshore development practices, such as vegetation clearing, riprap, sea walls, and extensive mowed lawns, can lead to degraded conditions for aquatic habitat and negatively impact water quality. Moreover, these common practices can result in drastic losses of land and property to the detriment of the landowner.

Through the VT DEC, Lakes & Ponds Division, MWA acquired grant funding to implement the Lake Wise program, design shoreland restoration projects, and increase awareness and public engagement around lakeshore BMPs. MWA works to assess properties for BMP opportunities, hires consultants to design these projects, and pays contractors to install them. MWA coordinates closely with the NorthWoods Stewardship Center, Orleans County Conservation District, and other local partners throughout the process. Most of the project costs can be covered through State grant funding programs. 

By participating in Lake Wise, shoreland property owners – including private homes, businesses, state parks and town beaches – receive technical assistance to address erosion issues, stormwater runoff, and shoreland vegetation. Lake Wise assessments help to inform design and construction to accommodate landowner needs, unique property characteristics, shoreland access, and water quality issues. When implemented successfully, the landowner is awarded a certification or award declaring the property is managed and maintained to protect the lake.

A property that earns the full Lake Wise Award becomes a model to its neighbors, and hopefully a champion of the program. The desire to win the award can create a friendly competition between lake associations and neighbors.

In 2013, members of the Seymour Lake Association began Lake Wise assessments on their own properties. In subsequent years, their committee launched an organized effort to reach out to their neighbors, eventually dividing the lake into sections and utilizing a one-on-one outreach approach. As a result, Seymour Lake, the second largest lake entirely within Vermont, has 50 awarded properties and 26 properties with certificates. 

“Lake Wise changed the culture regarding property management on Seymour private lakeshores,” says Peggy Barter, longtime resident. “And we credit Lake Wise as a major factor in reversing an increasing phosphorus trend.” Seymour’s phosphorus was in the 6 ug/L range in the 1990’s, rose to a high of 12.1 ug/L in the early 2000’s and has been stabilized for seven years at about 8.5 ug/L. Seymour is the first lake in EPA’s Northeast Division to be successful in reversing an increasing phosphorus trend, demonstrating that it is possible. 

There is also an award for generating critical mass on your lake. Lake Associations or lake groups with 15 percent awarded participation in the Lake Wise Program will receive the Gold Lake Wise Award for their lake. 

In 2017, the Seymour Lake Wise committee learned that the Echo Lake Association was working to become the first Gold Lake Wise lake. The race was on! Echo ended up winning, with Seymour getting their designation just two weeks afterwards. 

Echo resident Holly Bull first learned about shoreland protection at her lake association annual meeting. “They suggested having a ‘no mow zone’, which seemed like an easy thing to do,” stated Ms. Bull. “So, I stopped mowing about 10 feet back from the lake. Neighbors asked me if my lawn mower was broken. Eventually, I installed a ‘no-mow zone’ sign facing out to the lake to educate others on what I was doing.” A few years later, when she learned about Lake Wise, Ms. Wall began replacing her lawn with gardens and installing rain gardens to capture water.

Ms. Bull credits Lake Wise with changing her thinking and the way she looked at her property. She learned about concepts like runoff, infiltration, filtration, and pervious and impervious surfaces. She learned that permeable surfaces allow water to percolate through the soil, whereas impervious surfaces, like concrete and mowed lawns, allow runoff to transport common pollutants to the lake. 

Steve Gratton, another Echo Lake resident and Lake Wise Coordinator for the Echo Lake Association, was an early adopter of the program. After buying his property in 2013 and learning about Lake Wise, he reached out to the state for help. The partnership transformed his property, which he says was “doing everything wrong” up until then. “I cannot encourage people enough to work with the State,” says Gratton. “People fear reaching out because the assumption is the State will penalize them for doing something wrong, but actually they are here to help us!” 

The Gratton Family Camp is a great example of Lake Wise in action, and Mr. Gratton’s enthusiasm is palpable. He loves to show off his lakeshore buffer that was paid for in part by a grant through the VT DEC Environmental Restoration Program that was available in 2014. His septic system is his pride and joy, and he can explain to you in detail how his infiltration trench and the duff in his woods work to slow down runoff, and how his winding pathway works like water bars. “At some point, the water will reach the lake, but the goal is to slow it down and let the earth filter it,” states Gratton, “By the time the water leaves my property and meets the lake, it is only in drops.” The water lapping at his property edge is crystal clear after a rainstorm. Before the implementation of his changes, there would be a sediment plume extending out from his dock. Runoff is problematic because it carries with it phosphorus, nitrogen, sediment, and the chemicals we put on our lawns. These pollutants degrade water quality and encourage algae growth. 

Just like the Gold Lake Wise Award can inspire an entire lake association to improve water quality, the State is also promoting Lake Watershed Action Plans, which are comprehensive plans specific to a lake’s drainage area. For the Lake Watershed Action Plans, the State provides grant funding for consultants to work with lake associations, town selectboards, road departments, and residents to identify, prioritize, and develop water quality improvement projects. Over the next two years, MWA will work with the Orleans County Conservation District to perform field assessments and develop preliminary designs for the Willoughby Lake Watershed Action Plan in Westmore. The Conservation District is also spearheading the Shadow Lake Watershed Action Plan in Glover. 

Additionally, the  Memphremagog Clean Water Service Provider is a new direct-funding source for voluntary public and private lake shoreland enhancement and restoration projects in the Memphremagog Basin. The process is similar to Lake Wise, but will provide simpler grant administration and more flexible, comprehensive funding. Certain lake shoreland restoration projects are eligible to be fully funded from the assessment phase through design and implementation. Requirements include measurable phosphorus reduction benefits, voluntary support from the landowner, and agreeing to allow regular maintenance as needed (which can also be grant funded).

Landowners who are interested in enhancing and restoring their lakefront properties to reduce phosphorus levels in their lakes and protect water quality and fish habitat, can reach out to their local lake association, MWA’s Project Manager (Patrick Hurley), or the State Lake Wise program manager (Alison Marchione). 

To earn the Lake Wise Award, a property is evaluated in four categories: shoreland, recreation area, driveway, and septic/structure. The main goal of these changes is to minimize erosion and stormwater runoff into the lake.

If a property has excellent stormwater runoff practices, but no native shoreland vegetation, then it may earn a Lake Wise Certificate, but not the full Award sign. Passing two of the four categories earns a Certificate, but to post an Award sign that showcases a property as a model for lake-friendly living, the property must pass all four categories. 

Some examples of ways to implement the lakeshore best practices in the four categories include the following:

• Driveways – Use pervious pavement materials; build grass-lined drainage ditches and infiltration trenches
• Recreation Areas (yards, footpaths, gardens & patios) – Minimize lawn area and avoid using synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, optimize natural conditions with native plants and by re-naturalizing areas, install infiltration steps
• Shorefront – Maintain a minimum of 15 feet of vegetation at the shoreline, establish no-mow zones, keep shallow water areas natural and not “cleaned up,” stabilize banks with re-sloping, using rock toes and riprap
• Structures/Septic – Install rain gardens, drywells and infiltration trenches, develop vegetated swales, ensure septic system quality.

For more information VT DEC https://dec.vermont.gov/watershed/lakes-ponds/lakeshores-lake-wise/what