By Melissa DeSimone, MLSA Executive Director
In what made for a wonderful experience, MLSA President, Mike Gallagher, and I were able to attend the graduation for this program and meet the 19 individuals who participated in this year’s LSLI. These are people dedicated to the lakes and streams of Michigan who spent the better part of the year learning and working on projects to improve our waterways. MLSA believes in this program; we provide financial and volunteer assistance because this type of program gets to the heart of our organization. The participants presented their culminating projects for us and we were able to share in the excitement of their accomplishments. There was a wide variety of projects dealing with educational activities for children, applied initiatives for property improvement, and lake association education, just to name a few. Each participant has already contributed so much to the quality of Michigan’s lakes and streams; we are proud of what they have done and look forward to what they accomplish in the future!
Participants and their projects:
- Elizabeth Christiansen – Invading Our Classrooms: Reducing Aquatic Invasive Species Use in Education
- Terry Dugan – The Six Commandments for Lake Residents
- Ryan Eisley – Best Lake Life Practices
- Ian FitzGerald – Watershed and Future Conservationists
- Madeleine Gorman – Benefits of Using Nature-based Solutions to Manage Flooding on Michigan’s Coast
- Karla Hammond – Salmon in the Classroom
- Benjamin Jordan – Water Quality and Habitat Improvement at the Coopersville Public Schools
- Gregory Kindig – Lakeshore Management on Wildwood Lake
- Janee Kronk – Varsity Day Camp Natural Shoreline Demonstration Project
- Jacklyn Lenten – Stream Monitoring on the Whetstone Brook in Marquette
- Rachel Mackson – For the Good of the Lake: Preserving Lake Ecology and Bringing Communities Together
- Stewart McFerran – Study of Aquatic Plants of Bronson Lake
- Kate Mehuron – Let’s Protect Letts Creek
- Caroline Moellering – LTBB Boat Wash Project
- Erin Parker – Algae Academy
- Shane Preston – Fish Stocking at Thompson Lake in Howell
- David Putt – Aquatic Invasive Species Monitoring in Northern Macomb and Oakland Counties
- Sharon Stone – Phasing in Natural Shorelines for Wetland Protection
- Alex Svoboda – MDARD Well Water Screening Program
