How's Your Lakeshore Looking?

WISCONSIN LAKES-PUB-FM-800 99Rev.

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Thoreau called a lake "the landscape's most beautiful and expressive feature." While piers, decks and cabins may help you enjoy your lake, shoreline development can obscure its natural beauty, masking the landscape's expression. Be aware of state and local shoreland zoning regulations designed to help keep the landscape in harmony with the natural lakeshore, and keep Wisconsin's most expressive feature beautiful:

• Maintain and restore natural vegetation strips along the shoreline, not only to enhance the lake's beauty, but to provide cover and shade for fish, wildlife and people-also increasing privacy, reducing runoff and noise
• Logs and branches make great aquatic habitat. Resist the urge to "tidy-up" when a storm leaves woody debris along the shoreline Contact your zoning office before you begin any construction activity on or near your shoreline
• All structures, including decks, must be set back 75 feet from the shoreline
• Follow standards for shoreline cutting, lot size, sanitation, and construction
• Design structures to complement the landscape. Use natural colors and build only what you need
• Try natural-looking rock or boulder rip-rap, instead of sea walls and sheet piles, to prevent shoreline erosion or better yet, protect natural vegetation
• Learn who your local zoning officials are and participate in Board of Adjustment hearings:
  
  You can make a difference!