At the January 2022 Mississippi Headwaters Board meeting, the board made a decision to gather interest from county aquatic invasive species coordinators about a program named Lakepledge.
Executive Director Tim Terrill explained lake homeowners and AIS coordinators now have a new opportunity to work closely together on a project to help protect their water resource from zebra mussels and other harmful invaders, a news release stated. The program, Lakepledge, was started and implemented in Hennepin County as a pilot project in which lake homeowners can go to a website and click on “activities/watercraft” that they own and do. Those actions could be: owning a dock or kayak; owning a pet, moving a boat from lake to lake, etc.
When the owner clicks on a list of their specific actions, they are directed to information specific videos on that action in which they can watch and learn about ways to protect their lake and take a pledge to do those actions. The program not only keeps track of how many videos the landowner watches, but also keeps track of what lake they live on and provides a percentage of how many other landowners on that lake took the pledge as well. It then produces a quick report on the activities people do on their specific lake and provides data on what AIS protection measures need to be implemented on the lake.
The board thought it was a useful tool because it allows lake associations and county coordinators to fine tune their education efforts based on homeowner uses on the lake, the news release stated. They asked Terrill to talk with county AIS coordinators and see if their county and/or lake associations have any interest in doing this.
