Friends, a public foundation, has initiated a campaign to raise the funds needed to protect Lake Leelanau in perpetuity. The goal of the Campaign is to provide Friends with an endowment of at least $5 million, and ideally between $5 and $8 million. Typically, a foundation with $5 million in assets generates approximately $200,000 in spendable income annually, while still enabling the corpus to continue to grow in the years ahead.

For the foreseeable future, Friends’ highest priority will be to provide a source of recurring funding to prevent, monitor, control and, whenever possible, remove invasive aquatic weeds from Lake Leelanau.

Each year there will be a need to undertake comprehensive surveys of the Lake's vegetation using drones and sonar scanning, in combination with physical inspections, to make sure EWM remains in check and does not migrate to new parts of Lake Leelanau. And as new beds of EWM (or other invasive species) are identified, they will need to be dealt with aggressively to prevent their further spread.

Equally importantly, preventive measures are needed to reduce the likelihood that EWM and other invasive species are reintroduced into the Lake in the future. Prevention activities will include:

• Educational campaigns to raise public awareness about the threat of aquatic weeds;

• Studies aimed at better understanding how many public boat launch sites the Lake community needs; and

• An evaluation of the programs and equipment needed at launch sites to improve compliance with state-mandated boat cleaning regulations.

Income from the Friends of Lake Leelanau endowment will support the Association's work of preventing, monitoring, and controlling aquatic invasive species in Lake Leelanau. As the Foundation's assets grow and as the threats to Lake Leelanau change over time, Friends may identify additional concerns which need to be addressed to preserve and protect Lake Leelanau.

Click here to learn more about Friends of Lake Leelanau.