Reflecting on this past summer, it is very evident that we have a strong community of volunteers with a passion to help protect the beauty and quality of Lake Leelanau. During the 2025 season, we continued to recruit and train new volunteers to help us protect Lake Leelanau. Our 130+ volunteers spent over 830 hours this year volunteering. Please join us in reviewing some of this year’s main volunteer activities and expressing gratitude to all of our volunteers for their extraordinary contributions!
Volunteers were recruited for the seven primary programs highlighted below. But there are so many other activities beyond those that volunteers do that keep our organization running, such as setting up and helping out at our events, educating at Kids Fishing Day, taking water quality samples, maintaining the lake crew’s work site, decorating and riding on our float in the 4th of July Parade, maintaining our SCUBA air compressors, deploying Galerucella beetles to control purple loosestrife, and the list goes on!
North Lake Leelanau & Leland River Community Monitoring:
This was a new pilot program in 2025 with a goal of recruiting 80 waterfront property owners on North Lake Leelanau and the Leland River to survey their shoreline for sprigs of Eurasian watermilfoil (EWM) throughout the summer. The program was an extreme success with 75 volunteers recruited, contributing 186.2 hours of walking their shorelines to look for suspicious plants. We are proud to report that 14 plant sprigs were reported, but they were all native plants!
Boat Wash Stations:
To supplement our employees who worked several of the LLLA boat wash stations on Friday-Sunday and holidays, volunteers contributed over 152 hours of their personal time to be trained and staff the four boat wash stations throughout the summer. The combined efforts of staff and 20 volunteers made contact with 3,319 boaters (an increase of 37% compared to the 2024 season) and washed 972 boats. In addition, a TRUE BLUE program was developed for watercraft rental companies, with 4 companies participating to show their dedication to always cleaning their rental boats before launching. Through these efforts, we are continuing to develop a culture of washing boats to prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species between lakes and within Lake Leelanau!
Boat Wash Station Maintenance:
Ensuring the reliability of the equipment at our boat wash stations is essential. Over the past year, we were grateful that Jeff Brown volunteered alongside Thad Popa to prepare the four boat cleaning stations for the summer season. They also fixed leaks and kept the equipment running throughout the summer. Between the two of them, they volunteered over 100 hours to keep our boat wash stations running!
Pea Gravel Bag Filling:
Volunteers attended 6 different events and filled 2,050 pea gravel bags used by the Eurasian watermilfoil (EWM) crew to weigh down benthic barriers to kill EWM. Not only did this increase the time divers were available to be in the lake, but it was a great way to meet new people, neighbors, and friends who all share their love of Lake Leelanau.
Shoreline Ambassadors:
LLLA’s Shoreline Ambassadors are volunteers training on shoreland best management practices who provide free Shoreline Consultations to Lake Leelanau property owners. These volunteers also helped put on our second annual Shoreline Restoration Field Day to showcase shoreline restoration projects around the lake. LLLA now has four fully trained Shoreline Ambassadors and seven “Ambassadors in Training” who will continue to shadow our certified Shoreline Ambassadors and plan to finish their training over the off-season months to be ready for next year’s Shoreline Consultations. This year so far, our team has provided 12 shoreline consultations.
During these Shoreline Consultations, our Ambassadors come to Lake Leelanau lakefront properties and advise on how to naturalize shorelines to prevent erosion, reduce stormwater runoff, improve the native shoreline ecosystem, and promote lake health. If you are interested in learning more and signing up, click here.
Zoning for Water Quality:
LLLA works with our local townships to educate township officials on maintaining and improving the quality of Lake Leelanau for all users through zoning. This activity focuses on ensuring that water quality considerations are part of planning and zoning decisions. Our volunteers regularly attend township meetings, provide input on decisions that impact Lake Leelanau, keep our members informed about local planning activities, and help educate planning officials on ways they can use zoning regulations to protect and preserve the quality and beauty of the lake. This is incredibly important work, as Leelanau County continues to grow and be developed.
Active Community Outreach:
So much of our work relies on involvement and participation from our community. LLLA recruits volunteers to help engage, maintain, and recruit more members. Volunteers help with things like reaching out to potential members, planning member events, stuffing envelopes for mailings, and delivering promotional materials to businesses. We continue to search for 1-3 volunteers to help actively engage with potential business supporters and members. Please click on the following link if you are interested in learning more about the volunteer opportunity or would like to sign up.
Thank you to our vital volunteers!
The contributions of these volunteers have been extraordinary! We hope all of you who volunteered enjoyed the activities and recognize that your contributions have been instrumental in helping us protect and preserve the health and beauty of Lake Leelanau and its surrounding watershed for current and future generations! We hope to see you back next year.
Please join us in extending our sincere gratitude to all of our volunteers. THANK YOU!