Our “Back to the Beach” initiative is sparking a renewed investment and pride in our local beaches. With support from Madison Community Foundation, this new initiative, highlighting our lakeside parks and beaches, ignites a vision for sustainable, healthy, and valued community resources.

In the summer of 2018, Clean Lakes Alliance took stock of 28 public beaches across the watershed. We issued the first Greater Madison Beaches Survey, providing community members with the opportunity to share opinions about their favorite beaches. Thanks to the hard work and data collection of our beach committee and volunteers, we have a great start on a State of the Beaches report!

The Reimagining Warner Beach Design Contest challenged participants to envision a future for Warner Beach benefitting water quality, sustainability, community access, and place-making. This unique design contest was open to the public and received entries from design firms, community groups, and students alike. A seven-member judging panel, made up of engineers, city planners, and other experts, evaluated 26 contest entries. The three winning designs (below) could be used to spark ideas during the City of Madison Master Planning Process for Warner Beach.

Tom Cranley, Community Advocate

Grant Frautschi, Community Advocate

Brett Halverson, Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce

Jason Ilstrup, Downtown Madison, Inc.

Jason Iverson, Madison Parks Foundation

Eric Knepp, Madison Parks Department

Steve Kraus, Village of Waunakee

Jamie Patrick, Madison Area Sports Commission

John Reimer, Dane County Land & Water Resources

Janet Schmidt, City of Madison Engineering

Alex Vitanye, Badger Sports Properties

Venus Washington, Madison Parks Commission

As part of Clean Lakes Alliance's popular Loop the Lake bike ride around Lake Monona, we held a famly-friendly sandcastle building contest at Olbrich Park Beach. The contest helped highlight our public beaches and even included an expert sand castle builder on site!

In 2018, Clean Lakes Alliance renewed a partnership with the UW-Madison Civil and Environmental Engineering Department to support student capstone projects focused on improving our beaches. With the guidance of academic and professional mentors, students created design solutions inspiring the community to advocate for healthy lakes and beaches.

Clean Lakes Alliance staff and partners successfully advocated for lake-friendly design components as part of the City of Madison Parks Division master plan for James Madison Park and its 2,000 feet of Lake Mendota shoreline (partial plan shown above). Clean Lakes Alliance advocated for and is pleased to see the following features incorporated into the final master plan design:

>>Emergent wetland with living shoreline. The plan proposes the creation of marshland habitat accessible by a boardwalk, replacing the current concrete seawall. This "living shoreline" feature will support fish and lakeshore-dependent wildlife, and help filter stormwater.

>>Stormwater bio-filtration areas. Rain gardens and other stormwater-infiltration features are planned to better manage runoff. Improvements include adding native plantings to help protect nearshore water quality.

Habitat improvements with fishing access. An oak savannah and fishing platform are proposed for the park. These enhancements will help promote a more natural and resilient park landscape.

The "My Favorite Lake" art contest encouraged local elementary and middle school students to think about the water around them. Students from local schools submitted 52 designs. Photos of the winners were on display at The Edgewater's photo gallery.