There are 3 excellent programs for you to consider for your shoreline.  These programs help protect water quality and habitat:
  1.  Score Your Shore 
  2.  Restore Your Shore
  3.  Restore The Shore

​Wonder how your shore is currently doing? 
  • ​​ Score Your Shore, a MN DNR tool helps landowners evaluate the habitat on their lake lots.
  • Restore Your Shore is a powerful MN DNR tool for shoreland owners and professionals to use in implementing shoreland restoration and protection projects.


HC COLA's "Restore The Shore" Program Highlights:

Our "Restore The Shore" (RTS) Program allows HC COLA members to place small quantity orders for bare root, high-quality, low-cost tree, berry, and shrub plants, plus seeds and plant kits too.  This program is a partnership between the Hubbard County Coalition of Lake Associations (HC COLA) and the Hubbard County Soil and Water Conservation District (HC SWCD) which started back in 1995 (see ongoing history below).

As a Lakeshore Owner in Hubbard County in a HCCOLA-member Lake Association, to take advantage of this annual short-windowed opportunity, please check with your Lake Association in the autumn. Your Lake Association’s "Restore The Shore" Coordinator for the HC COLA “Restore The Shore” Program will reach out to your lake association (LA) members with information on how to order and make payment to your lake association in early winter for early May delivery through your lake association's RTS Coordinator.  

When considering your order please remember that planting trees, shrubs, buffers and rain gardens are great tools to help protect our water quality (and therefore our land value). These plantings help prevent excess rain runoff that often has significant phosphorous content (remember that it takes only 1 pound of phosphorous to make up to 500 pounds of algae in the lake) and also shoreline erosion.

Important to Note:  The HCSWCD trees are bare root and need to be planted when delivered.  Lakeshore owners need to consider being at the lake to plant their ordered items in early May.

Email hccolamn@gmail.com if you have questions about the RTS program. 


The Ongoing History of the Hubbard County Coalition of Lake Associations “Restore The Shore” Program:
 
The Hubbard County COLA "Restore The Shore" Program is an annual "short-windowed" program with a history going back to 1995 when HCCOLA started ordering trees / plants from the Hubbard County Soil and Water Conservation District (HCSWCD) with their annual county-wide tree program. 
 
By 1999, both the HCSWCD and HCCOLA recognized that the annual Hubbard County SWCD program had too many trees (25) in one bundle for a lakeshore owner to plant on their own lakeshore lot.  So together, the organizations worked on a solution to help lakeshore owners order and plant a bundle of 5 trees instead of 25 trees.  The lakeshore owners could then plant more of a variety of trees and shrubs on their lake lots to help prevent rainwater runoff and erosion to protect lake water quality. 
 
Beginning in 1999, our HCCOLA annual tree program became known as the "Restore The Shore" program with the late Jerry Knoblich, Portage Lake, as the HCCOLA "Restore The Shore" Overall Program Coordinator for member lake associations.  The HCSWCD then began to provide HCCOLA with an order form each year with the trees available from the nurseries for the following spring and priced for a bundle of 5 trees instead of 25 in a bundle. Note that it is the similar price per tree as the regular HCSWCD county-wide program, except member lake associations' shoreline owners can order the smaller quantity through our HCCOLA program.  
 
Part of the cooperative agreement between HCSWCD and HCCOLA for the "Restore The Shore" Program is that HCCOLA provides one combined order back to HCSWCD with one overall check from HCCOLA by a specific date.  The HCSWCD works with nurseries for stock to fulfill the entire county-wide orders of trees, shrubs, etc.   
 
In approximately 2007, the late Gary Stolzenberg, South Island Lake, began to volunteer to help Jerry with the RTS program also.  Jerry Knoblich had also started the Water Quality Monitoring Program for HCCOLA member lakes in partnership with RMB Environmental Laboratories in 1997 to help lake's measure their progress on water quality improvements, aided by the “Restore The Shore” Program.  He was busy shuttling coolers to the lab for the lakes too.  Both Jerry and Gary cared deeply for trees and each planted many, many trees.  Gary and his late wife, Rosa, gifted HCCOLA through their estate to help with HCCOLA's mission of protecting and preserving the lakes. 
 
The late Steve Hall, Boulder Lake, as HCCOLA Treasurer at the time, helped illustrate the benefits for the HC COLA Board, in investing this inheritance in the existing Hubbard COLA Charitable Fund, an Endowment account at the Northwest MN Foundation.  Since 2019, grants have been made from the spendable portion of that endowment fund, offered on an annual basis through HCCOLA.  Steve also helped to continue preserving our area lakes as he shared his talents by providing presentations, writing articles, and demonstrating through installations established by him of shoreland buffers, rain gardens and coir logs for preventing erosion.  He also helped shuttle water quality monitoring coolers to RMB also in addition to being a resource for the HCCOLA Shoreland Advisors educational / coaching team established in 2020.  
 
On 09/22/2020, HC COLA offered a Zoom online one-hour workshop on “Lawns to Lakes: There is a Connection.  This workshop was geared for lakeshore property owners.  It was created through a partnership with the University of MN Extension – Hubbard County and HCCOLA with input from HCSWCD too.  The workshop helps to explain the connection between land use and water quality.  Individuals learn techniques on to change their own lawns to help improve water quality.  Some native plant ideas are also discussed.  This video may help provide ideas for what to order through the annual “Restore The Shore” Program when it is available autumn/winter for delivery in early May. 
     
The HCCOLA “Restore the Shore” Program is ongoing, so if you aren’t really sure what might work best for your property, HCCOLA has a number of trained “Shoreland Advisors” who can offer insights to lakeshore owners. If you would like to schedule a complimentary visit by these trained HCCOLA coaches, email HCcolaMN@gmail.com. During a visit the Shoreland Advisor will walk with you on your shoreland, listen to your ideas, and share insights on how to
prevent runoff, erosion and promote water quality. A visit is typically less than an hour, and after researching questions and potential opportunities, a visit recap is shared with you via email. This can be done as long as there is no snow on the ground. 

The Hubbard County Coalition of Lake Associations “Restore The Shore” Program continues through volunteers known as RTS Coordinators plus you and your families as lake friendly gardeners and stewards of the area lakes!  Thank you!

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The Detailed Processes for the annual Hubbard County Coalition of Lake Associations “Restore The Shore” Program:
 
The process on the HCCOLA member lake associations (LA) end is to identify a lake association RTS Coordinator to collect their lakeshore owners orders and their payment checks for their LA and then put together the combined LA order.
 
The LA Treasurer would get the individual LA checks from their RTS Coordinator and then write one check to HCCOLA to submit with the LA overall order to HCCOLA. 
 
Depending on each lake association's process for their lakeshore property owners, the deadline for the lakeshore owner is much sooner than the overall HCCOLA deadline so that the lake association RTS Coordinator can get their RTS tasks accomplished on time to be able to mail their order / payment to be received by the HCCOLA "Restore The Shore" Overall Coordinator by the specified date that HCCOLA communicates.  
 
In early May, a small HCCOLA team helps pull together the physical orders for each lake association's tree order when trees arrive to the HCSWCD from the nurseries.  The lake association RTS Coordinator picks up their lake associations order at the designated place / time in early May. 
 
Then the lake association RTS Coordinator heads back to their lake and distributes the individual items ordered to their own lake association members' orders in whatever agreed upon manner is arranged within your own lake assoc.  
 
  • For example, some LA RTS Coordinators for a lake will deliver the trees to the lakeshore owners around their lake that were ordered. 
  • Other LA RTS Coordinators have their property owners come to the coordinator's home to pick up their individual orders.  The lake association RTS Coordinator / LA decides and communicates within their own lake association. 

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For the Lake Association RTS Coordinator, here is an example communication about the program to tweak and send to your Lake Association members.  The "Individual" Order Form in pdf format was attached to the email also.

A new pilot this year by the Hubbard County Coalition of Lake Associations (HCCOLA) and the Hubbard County Soil & Water Conservation District (HCSWCD) allows for a longer timeline before your “Restore The Shore” order form is due.  Check out the trees, shrubs, seed packets and a wide variety of reasonably priced plant kits in the attached pdf file.

Your individual order and your payment made out to our lake association is due to [name / address of where the lake assoc RTS coordinator determines AND needs to be received by date]

Planting trees, shrubs, buffers and rain gardens help prevent rain runoff and erosion with excess phosphorus from entering into the lake.  It only takes 1 pound of phosphorus to make up to 500 pounds of algae in the lake. 

To learn more about the Lawns to Lake Connection, view the 1 hour training video for lakeshore owners available on the HC COLA website:   https://www.hubbardcolamn.org/presentations.html   Scroll down to 9-22-2020 to view.

This HCCOLA "Restore The Shore" Program is ongoing, so if you haven't given much thought to shoreland restoration, or aren't really sure what might work best for your property, HCCOLA has a number of trained "shoreland advisors" who can offer insights to lakeshore owners. If you would like to schedule a complimentary visit by the trained HCCOLA shoreland advisors, email HCcolaMN@gmail.com.  The Shoreland Advisor will walk with you on your shoreland and listen to your ideas and share insights for your mini-watershed to prevent runoff, erosion and promote water quality.  The Shoreland Advisor visit is typically less than an hour.  After researching questions and potential opportunities, a visit recap is shared with you via email for your reference.  This can be done yet this autumn as long as there is not snow on the ground.