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Introduction
Sugar Lake
Lake Minnie Belle
Buffalo Lake
Gervais Lake
What Will the
Neighbors Think?:
Cultural Values

Seeing Our Shorelines

What Do You See?

Summary

Common Problems

What will the Neighbors Think?:
Lawn Care Facts

Today, we show our love for lawns by giving money and time*:
  • We spend more than $5 billion each year on fossil fuel-derived fertilizers for U.S. lawns.
  • 30-60% of our urban fresh water is used for watering lawns.
  • We pay out over $700 billion for 67 million pounds of pesticides to pour on our lawns.
  • We have converted 20 million acres to residential lawns.
*U.S. Lawn Care Facts as Annual Totals & Percentages from Redesigning the American Lawn by F. Herbert Bormann, Diana Balmori, Gordon T. Begalle, Yale University Press, 1993

Time to Alter an Aesthetic
For lakeshore owners who looked forward to making the most of their time at the lake, every moment spent in lawn maintenance is time away from the lake. Unfortunately, those moments easily mount up to several hours a week in many cases.