Property Owners' Willingness to Accept Natural Shoreline Conservation Programs on Their Inland Lake Properties in Michigan

The shorelines and shallow waters of Michigan’s inland lakes are incrementally changing as individual property owners make decisions related to shoreline and aquatic vegetation, woody habitat, docks, and fish habitat. Summed across all property owners on the lake, these changes have the potential to impact water quality, fish and wildlife populations, and ecosystem health. To better-understand property owners’ decisions, we conducted a randomized survey of 1,100 lakefront property owners in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. Our goals were to improve understanding of the ways shoreline property owners manage and use their properties, improve understanding of individual characteristics that influence property owner’s willingness to participate in conservation, and estimate the cost of implementing a hypothetical conservation easement program on shoreline properties. We will present information gained from the survey on demographics of shoreline property owners, common uses of shorelines, and relationships between the willingness to participate in conservation programs and characteristics of property owners. We will also present estimates for costs to implement best-management practices through a voluntary conservation easement framework. Results from the study can be used by resource managers, non-profit organizations, and other stakeholders to inform natural shoreline conservation strategies and protect fish habitat in lakes for future generations.