In NW Wisconsin, a county finds paying homeowners to keep shorelines natural pays off
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Mike and Sally Kindell bought a home six years ago on Warner Lake in Burnett County, lured largely by the lake’s clean, clear water.
It doesn’t suffer the late-summer algae blooms that turn the water green and slimy on lakes across Wisconsin and Minnesota. One big reason why: It still boasts plenty of undeveloped, wooded lakeshore that helps filter runoff and nutrient pollution.
“The lake is really what was appealing to us,” Sally Kindell said. “We certainly did research the quality of the water, and that was really important to us.”
While protecting the lake aligns with their values, the Kindells have another reason for keeping their property deliberately natural. They’re part of a program in Burnett County that pays homeowners to protect their lakeshore, the only one of its kind in Wisconsin.
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Landowners who enroll in the shoreline incentive program agree to follow the county’s lakeshore zoning rules. If their property doesn’t meet the rules, they’re required to restore it.
In exchange for enrolling, landowners get an initial payment of $250, plus a $50 check every year. The county also will pay up to 70 percent of the cost of restoring a shoreline with native plants.
While the payments are relatively modest — Burnett County puts the total annual cost at $35,000 to $40,000 a year — officials say the incentive has preserved more than 50 miles of shoreline and helped cultivate a culture of stewardship, by engaging property owners to care about their lake’s health.
“I would just say it's just as much an educational tool as it is a reward tool,” said Burnett County conservationist Dave Ferris, who helped create the program in 2000. “Luckily, the county board has been very supportive of that. It helps a lot, and solves a lot of problems down the road.”
Lake advocates cite the 24-year-old Burnett County program as a model that could be replicated in Minnesota, where nearly half of the state’s natural shorelines have been lost to suburban-style development. Over the past few decades, property owners have cleared trees, built larger homes and converted natural shorelines to manicured lawns or rock riprap.
Burnett County’s success has caught the attention of some in the Twin Cities region. The Comfort Lake-Forest Lake Watershed District northeast of St. Paul launched a pilot program last year that pays property owners up to $300 a year to keep their lakeshore natural.
“Basically, it's our effort to incentivize good property management that's beneficial for the watershed, while also rewarding those who are already doing that work for us,” said Aidan Read, land management specialist with the watershed district.
The program is now in its first full year. Lake associations have been helping spread the word and there’s been a lot of interest, Read said. “We've been very, very busy this year, which has been great.”
‘Reward people for doing the right thing’
Burnett County doesn’t have any large cities, and much of its land is still forested. But development is increasing, and it’s putting pressure on the lakes.
Its location about a two-hour drive from the Twin Cities makes it popular for seasonal residents. Its population jumps from about 15,000 in the winter to 75,000 in the summer, said Emily Moore, county water resources specialist. Along with climate change, it’s affecting lake health, she said.
“We do have some lakes in the county, even with good water clarity, that we are seeing algae blooms just because of the environment — how it's changing, the water is warming up,” Moore said. “Constant pressure of people on the lake causes that, too.”
About 800 of Burnett County’s lake properties — roughly 10 percent — are enrolled in the shoreline incentive program. County officials say it’s helped educate homeowners and provided another motivation to restore their lakeshore to a more natural condition that protects the lake.
“Over the years, people have picked away at the shoreline, and it gets less and less natural,” Ferris said. “Pretty soon, it's nothing but green grass right down to the water, without anything stopping runoff.”
Burnett County started the voluntary program in 2000 when it was revising its mandatory lakeshore zoning rules, which had been confusing and difficult to enforce, Ferris said.
In their place, the county adopted a clear directive that lake property owners should keep a buffer of natural vegetation at least 35 feet deep along the water, he said.
“To go along with that, we felt it was important that there was a program that would reward people for doing the right thing,” Ferris said.
When a homeowner enrolls in the program, a covenant is placed on the property that remains permanently, even if it’s sold. The county does spot checks on about 10 percent of the properties every year to make sure they’re still complying.
“Then we'll send a letter just letting them know, ‘Hey, your shoreline looks good,’” Moore said. “Or, ‘Hey, you need to work on this area.’”
Real estate agents don’t always disclose the restrictions when they sell a home, so sometimes new buyers aren’t aware of them, she said.
Rather than using heavy-handed enforcement, the program also gives the county staff a chance to build a positive relationship with the homeowner and offer advice on improving their property. Moore has given the Kindells ideas of what native plants to plant, and will help them design a rain garden they want to install.
Enrollment in the shoreline incentive program boomed when it first started. It’s slowed, but keeps adding new members, Moore said.
“We hope to continue building it, just because we know how much pressure our shoreline properties are getting right now with people migrating away from the cities up to a North Woods feel here,” she said.
Of the county’s 500-plus lakes, 350 have at least one property in the program. Once a few homeowners join, others on the lake tend to follow, Moore said.
“It seems like neighbors talk to neighbors,” she said. “We are seeing a lot of properties being clustered on a lake, which has been really cool to see.”
By the same token, if people see their neighbor clear-cutting their shoreline, they assume they can do it too, Moore said.
‘Not just your shoreline’
Many property owners today understand the pressures of development and the impacts on water quality but there’s always at least one person who doesn’t want a “weedy” natural shoreline and would rather have a manicured lawn, Moore said.
She pitches homeowners on the importance of not only keeping a buffer along the shore but also about letting vegetation grow in the lake itself.
Property owners are allowed to clear a 30-foot-wide path to navigate a boat, but lily pads, pickerel, watershield and other aquatic plants are good at buffering waves from boats that can damage the sandy shore, she added.
“So it’s not just your shoreline,” Moore said. “It’s what’s in the lake, too.”
The previous owners had already enrolled in the program when the Kindells bought their Warner Lake property in 2018.
“We thought that was a really good idea, so we just kind of stayed with it,” Mike Kindell said.
The couple has used the payments to buy more native plants and seeds, including milkweed, bee balm and black-eyed Susans that attract pollinators and birds.
Unlike conventional grass lawns, the native plants have deep roots that absorb runoff and keep nutrients from flowing into the lake.
The Kindells plan to keep adding to their native plantings. They say the money is a nice bonus, but they would still keep their shoreline natural even without the payments.
“I think regardless,” Sally Kindell added, “we would be doing it, because it’s important to us.”
Funding for this series is provided in part by the Four Cedars Environmental Fund of the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation.
