Adopt goals to revegetate shoreland and create a local program or outreach effort to help property owners with revegetation.

Adopt goals to revegetate shoreland and create a local program or outreach effort to help property owners with revegetation.

Best Practice of this action

Rating Guideline

Collaborate with DNR and/or others to assess shoreland quality and set restoration goals in the comprehensive or other plan, or
Locally promote revegetation incentives and technical assistance.

Achieve 1-star AND report progress toward meeting goals for restoration of a specific percentage of shoreland, and/or
Partner with locally based organizations to change property owner perceptions of what socially acceptable and attractive shorelands are, and/or
Adopt a policy that prioritizes native plants and natural materials used in buffer restoration on public bodies of water and drainage corridors.

Enact a point-of-sale regulation that ensures shoreland revegetation as property is sold.

Resources

Assessments

Score Your Shore is a tool from the DNR to assess habitat conditions of developed lake lots, which can be used to set and track metric goals for shoreland revegetation and improvement.
The installation of unnecessary riprap is widely recognized as causing the loss of much of Minnesota’s natural shorelines. This is because many property owners and contractors choose a riprap aesthetic over a natural shoreline. Local governments can play an important role in changing this aesthetic through shoreline assessments using the DNR’s Lakeshore Stability Assessment Tool, an ArcGIS Online web application you can get access to by contacting Paul Radomski at DNR.
By keeping excess vegetation, leaves, and debris from flowing into the surface water can help the water quality. Communities can assess which storm sewers run into the waterbodies and set up a program to clean off storm grates. See more under BP 17: Stormwater.
Inspecting septic systems for cracks can ensure that they are not contributing nutrients to water bodies. See more under BP 21: Septic Systems.

Incentives and Education

The Minnesota Lakes and Rivers Advocates “lake steward program” works through local lake associations to change perceptions of what are attractive shorelands.
Many times, the plants that we think of as “weeds” may be good for a lake or other waterbody. Learning the difference will help understand how to manage them. See A guide to aquatic plants (MNDNR).
There is a delicate balance between a lake with plants vs algae. This video explains some of those interactions. If you skip to around 4 minutes that is where the discussion related to plant vs algae dominated system.

Restoration

Restore Your Shore Native Plant Encyclopedia from the DNR guides shoreland vegetation.
The Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources and the MN Dept. of Natural Resources routinely fund restoration projects.
Find resources for Shoreland Management and on maintaining and restoring natural shorelines from the MN Dept. of Natural Resources (DNR).
Not using fertilizers, having vegetated buffers (at least 50-feet of native plants), and rain gardens that intercept runoff from roads or roofs are just some ways to protect surface waters. See best management practices for shoreland properties (MN Extension) and caring for shoreland lawns and gardens (MN Extension) and other resources from the MN Dept. of Natural Resources for shoreland owners

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