Dear Friends,

As we close the books on a difficult year for our lakes, I want to take a moment to reflect on what went well, and what we can do to start 2019 off in the right direction.

This past year, a changing climate resulted in many lake-related problems. Heavy rain in February, followed by the wettest growing season since 1996, and record flooding in August, caused high amounts of algae-causing phosphorus to wash into our lakes. However, Clean Lakes Alliance stepped up, and our 70+ citizen monitors were often the first to report cyanobacteria blooms to the public on lakeforecast.org.

In addition to being a first alert to lake-related issues, we expanded our educational programs and worked to create policy recommendations for the Dane County Board led Healthy Farms Healthy Lakes Task Force. Through this work, we successfully advocated for more funding for our lakes in 2019.

While a lot of people will remember 2018 as one of the worst years for our lakes, I instead look at it as the start of something big. More than ever our community has seen how harmful runoff is, and more than ever people are asking what they can do to help. With your support, we will continue to push for more lake improvement projects, more education, and more awareness.

If you are a Friend of Clean Lakes or a Lake Partner, I want to thank you for your commitment to clean and healthy water. If you’d like to join the movement, we’ll make sure your dollars go directly towards making a difference.

Thanks for your continued support. I’m excited to see what we can accomplish together in the new year.