2025 Natural Shoreline Award Winners
Jane and Joe Lendway – Big Carnelian Lake in May Township Washington County (Carnelian-Marine-St. Croix Watershed District)
Wildlife sightings are common at Jane and Joe Lendway’s cabin on Big Carnelian Lake in northern Washington County. “A couple of years ago, we were sitting in the backyard and I heard rustling near the boat,” Joe says. “I looked down and saw this cute little face looking up at me. It was a baby otter!” The Lendways also see turtles along the lakeshore, as well as butterflies and hummingbirds that visit the native blooms in their gardens.
“We were one of the first ones to get involved with the watershed district in 2007 when they first offered grants to help people restore their shorelines,” Joe explains. “Before that, we had a sand beach but it was always eroding when it rained. Now that doesn’t happen anymore - even the wave action doesn’t tear up the shore.”
In 2024, the Lendways re-connected with the Carnelian-Marine-St. Croix Watershed District and received a follow-up grant to enhance their native planting with more diversity for pollinators and birds. They now have a wonderful mix of flowers that starts blooming early in the spring and continues into the fall. “As soon as one thing ends, new things start blooming,” Jane says enthusiastically. “It is constantly changing.”
Joe’s parents originally bought their cabin in the 1950s and, despite lots of updating and remodeling projects over the years, it still occupies the same relatively small footprint on Big Carnelian Lake. “My dad wanted to have a place that we wouldn’t spend all weekend getting to and from,” he explains.
Their small backyard includes benches around a fire pit, wooden stairs with a nautical rope railing leading down to their pontoon boat, and a lush landscape filled with blooming native plants including goldenrod, sneezeweed, black-eyed susans, new England aster, and milkweed. The plants attract a wide variety of butterflies, birds, and native bees, and also help to stabilize the shoreline with deep-roots that protect against erosion. Joe says they used to cut back the plants in the fall but now leave them standing until the spring to provide food and habitat for birds over the winter.
In addition to having a great view with lots of wildlife, the Lendways also enjoy having a low maintenance landscape. “Once you get it established it isn’t much work,” Joe says. “It’s just like planting a tree or a establishing a new lawn. Once the native plants get their roots established, they pretty much take care of themselves. It’s just like prairie land.”
