Self Assessment Survey

What Is the Self Assessment Survey

What you do with your property is your decision. You buy property so that you can do with it what you please. One of your goals may be to make sure you provide a level of care for the health of the lake, and the self assessment survey is an interactive tool that can offer you ideas for how you can reduce sources of harm - many that you may have never even known were harmful. Following in the footsteps of the Mullet Lake Area Preservation Society (MAPS), the Burt Lake Preservation Association (BLPA), and many other well cared for lakes in our state, the BLPS is offering to our members the Michigan Shoreland Steward’s self assessment. You can speed through the assessment in about 15 minutes, or you can read the supplemental information that gives you more understanding of why the questions are important and what can be done to improve your score. It's up to you how you use the survey.

The Shoreland Stewards organization has some really helpful information here: https://www.mishorelandstewards.org/

You are given the option of registering on the site with a login id and password. The value of registering is that 1) you will be counted in the number of people for each lake that have taken the assessment, 2) you can save your information in the middle of the survey and come back to it later, and 3) you can retake the survey over time to see if your score improves, We'd like to track the level of use of this survey, so please register before beginning the survey. No one is interested in your score, but we are interested in knowing how many people take the survey, so please register when you take it!

Click Here to Go To the Self Assessment at the Michigan Shoreland Stewards Website

Report Your Completion of the Survey to BLPS Members

Click the button to enter the survey form. Click the blue icon on the map to choose your current location. You may choose to add a photo of your property, but that is optional. From the feature list on the last item of the survey, choose "Black Lake Steward". Don't forget to save your form, and thanks for taking the survey!

Enter The Eyes on the Lake Survey Form

Formulate Your Ideas for A Property Plan

Having gone through the self-assessment, you probably have many ideas of what you may like to do on your property. Revisiting your survey from time to time can help to inspire you to continue on a plan to lower and lower impact.

In absence of a habit of thinking this way, lakes have a very predictable progression of impairment:

More cottages, bigger cottages
More lawn, more lawn treatment
More garages, pole barns, bigger garages, pole barns
More trees removed and not replanted
More driveways, roads, parking lots, asphalt, and concrete
More septic systems, aging septic systems
More boat launching that increases exposure to invasive weeds and mussels
More hardened shoreline, more seawalls

Over time, these changes have a compounding effect on shoreline erosion, stormwater pollution, and degradation of marine life habitat, and these changes are virtually irreversible. Each generation accepts a reduced profile of nature as a starting point and is willing to compromise from there. Our lake has managed to retain its natural character better than most, and we need to have the pride in our lake to continue this pattern of great lake stewardship.

Additional Ideas

The following link takes you to a fun tool that gives you ideas about a broader look at how “green” your lifestyle is. These ideas are not tailored to lake living, but may be of interest to you.

https://www.greenmountainenergy.com/for-customers/eco-tips/

Thank You!

Have fun with this self assessment and after you've completed it, let us and other members know on our Facebook page that you did it and what you thought of it. If you have registered at the Shoreland Stewardship website when you took the survey, you can revisit your answers at any time. This allows you to assess the impact of your actions and to gain a sense of satisfaction from your efforts.

Thanks for caring and becoming a Black Lake Shoreland Steward!