Minnesota boasts over ten thousand lakes, the headwaters of the mighty Mississippi River, and hundreds of thousands of active citizens. By developing a greater sense of personal ownership over these bodies of water, Minnesotans will be able to serve as the messengers for and leaders in water quality management and conservation.

I propose that we develop an "Adopt a Lake" or "Adopt a River" program modeled after Mn/DOT's "Adopt a Highway" program. This will be a public service program that enlists community organizations, faith groups, individuals, businesses, etc, in maintaining responsibility for a body of water. This includes helping to clean up litter, maintaining safe access, reporting to the appropriate officials when there is a challenge to be met, educating community members and those who access the body of water about water quality and care, and being overall guardians for the body of water.

This would be a voluntary endeavor, but could be incentivized by allowing signage for business or organizational promotion, providing small funds for beautification projects, supplying clean-up and litter removal gear, and more.

We would select a test run of 50 lakes and portions of rivers in the first year, in order to implement the program and test its feasibility. We would need to develop guidelines for the application to Adopt A Lake, develop 2 key campaign times throughout the year (Spring and Fall) in order to promote clean-up as well as education, and allow for an iterative learning process to understand how to better improve the program for participants as well as water quality improvement in the second year.

I have lived in St. Paul, Duluth, and now, the southern suburbs of the Twin Cities. Since I work and play all across our great state, however, I'm a proud Minnesotan who is happy to recognize that many issues, and water in particular, affect an entire region. Having traveled throughout a good deal of the Minnesota, I'm thrilled to call this place home!