During the summer of 2006, Bony Lake property owners began meeting to discuss “what might be done” to save our lake from the increasing stresses on water quality due to erosion and the decline of natural shoreline.

Partnering in these discussion were Butch Lobermeier, Bayfield County Conservationist, Land & Water Conservation Department, Pamela and Scott Toshner, Wisconsin DNR and Mike Gardner & Stacy Schaefer, Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute at Northland College in Ashland, WI.

Working with these partners, we wrote a successful DNR Lake Protection ~ Shoreland Restoration Grant that will provide $100,000 over 3 years, with an additional $45,000 in cash & in-kind matching funds, to accomplish a number of very important goals.

While shoreline restorations have historically been implemented on an individual parcel scale, the concept of lakewide, or whole-lake, restoration work is relatively new. With 50% of the riparian owners indicating their interest in being involved, the Bony Lake project will be the largest undertaken on a single lake in Wisconsin.



The image here highlights the properties where project work has begun.
See the Restoration Projects section on the left for more details.

A number of notable activities have already been completed, the most significant is the addition of tree complexes along over 1000’ of shoreline from October of 2007 through March 2008.

The following pages and links contain information related to the entire project and specific sections by property owner name.

Project Pages
Pre-project Shorelines
Water Quality Monitoring
Paleolimnology
Improving Near-shore Habitat Oct 2007
Improving Near-shore Habitat Feb/Mar 2008