Lake Michigan Day was started in 2014 to highlight the importance of this great water body to the basin’s environment and economy. The Lake Michigan Stakeholders promotes this basin-wide event to highlight the special connections people have to this unique world treasure.

Clean water is a basic right and necessity for all life. If you live near Lake Michigan, you are fortunate to be living near one of the world’s largest lakes. Every day, each of the human residents of the Lake Michigan basin use water from the lake for drinking, home use, industrial use, or recreation. The lake is also essential for countless fish, birds, animals, and plants.

CHAMPIONS AWARDS

The Lakeshore Natural Resource Partnership (LNRP) and LMS sponsor the annual Lake Michigan Champions of Conservation Awards. This environmental award program recognizes and honors the outstanding achievements in three categories:

• Water Resources Protection: Projects that improve or restore degraded reaches of streams or rivers, lakes or wetlands in the Lake Michigan basin, or monitoring programs that can lead to improvements. Management actions that protect and improve the Lake Michigan fishery will also be considered.

• Environmental Education and Outreach: Projects that advance knowledge and understanding of environmental issues, principles and stewardship through innovative communication and education methods.

• Land Use Protection and Habitat Restoration: Focuses on the efforts of individuals or groups developing projects for the restoration and/or protection of unique or endangered regional ecosystems.

FUN FACTS

• Lake Michigan is the only Great Lake entirely within the United States.

• The Lake Michigan shoreline is over 1,600 miles long – the distance from Chicago to the Florida Keys!

• The five Great Lakes contain 90% of the U.S. fresh water supply and 18% of the world’s fresh water supply.

• Over 2 million Wisconsin residents live on or near the shoreline of Lake Michigan.

• Water from Lake Michigan impacts us all economically.  We use it for drinking, food, bathing, industry – every day.