Friends of Lake Wingra is proud to present the culminating document of a three year process of developing a vision for the future of Lake Wingra. You can download a pdf of the document now. Hard copies have been sent to our mailing list. You can also pick up a copy at upcoming FOLW events.
The Mission of Friends of Lake Wingra is “to promote a healthy Lake Wingra through an active watershed community.” But what do we mean by a “healthy” Lake Wingra? What do all of us, as Lake Wingra’s active watershed community, want our lake to be? What is possible for it to be?
When citizens founded the Friends ten years ago, we understood that what’s in the water is a reflection of how we live on the land. It was a straightforward first step to work to reduce the excess nutrients, sediments, and other pollutants that are carried to the lake from storm water runoff. Are we done with that yet? No, we continue to have lots of work to do to improve land use and storm water management in the watershed! While we continue to improve how we live on the land that drains to the lake, we are beginning a new focus on the Lake itself.
David Mollenhoff recently challenged Madison citizens to develop a practical vision for our lakes. Mollenhoff believes this vision must:
- “have clearly stated rehabilitation goals”
- “distill technical and scientific complexities into a comprehensive action plan,” and
- “provide vivid and inspiring images about what we will experience when we get to our destination.”
Friends of Lake Wingra took on this challenge for our namesake lake, and with much help from the community, developed a document that fulfills those objectives. This document is intended to inspire interest and action, and to provide benchmarks for the ongoing effort to improve the lake. We hope you will join us in this effort.