2025 Natural Shoreline Award Winners
Jean and John Schreckeis – Keewahtin Lake in Forest Lake, Washington County (Comfort Lake – Forest Lake Watershed District)
Located five miles outside of downtown Forest Lake, Keewahtin is a quiet and exceptionally clear lake, dappled with white lilies near the shore. Jean and John Schreckeis moved to the lake in 2005 and have spent the past 15 years working to cultivate a vibrant landscape, filled with native plants and trees.
“The motivation for me is that I hate mowing lawn,” laughs John, when we stopped out to visit the couple in September.
“I was always into a more natural look,” Jean adds, “and I was also interested in finding ways to keep the geese away.”
Jean started researching native plants by reading books and visiting local plant nurseries, then eventually connected with the Washington Conservation District and Comfort Lake – Forest Lake Watershed District, which provided grant funding to replace turf along their shoreline with deep-rooted native plants like black-eyed susans, Indian grass, big bluestem, and pale purple coneflower. In recent years, she’s focused her efforts on improving the diversity of plants along their shoreline.
“In the beginning, we did a lot of the planting by seed,” Jean says. “Now, I’m managing for too many grasses. If I could do it again, I’d plant the species in clumps.” Even so, the couple also notes that a lot of native plants have shown up on their own, including pussytoes and quaking aspen.
As we stand in their yard chatting, we can see bees buzzing in the gardens and a pair of swans swimming gracefully in the lake. The couple say they also frequently see herons and egrets, as well as a neighborhood beaver. “It is so peaceful,” Jean smiles. “I felt bad at first – people acted like it was all weeds - but now I give everyone the schpeel on why they should do this.”
In 2019, Jean participated in a program offered by Freshwater Society to become certified as a Minnesota Water Steward. Her work to restore their lakeshore led to a capstone project for the program, and she also learned about the science and management of water in Minnesota. “I actually made a book,” she announces enthusiastically. “It is all about the watershed and everything native we have growing by the lake.”
Though they’ve already created a serene natural oasis, Jean and John still have more plans for the future. They point to the newest garden, knick-named “John’s Garden,” and a patchy area beneath a large oak tree where they are working to reduce erosion from stormwater that comes off the road.
“I just love it here,” says Jean. “I call it my thinking spot.”
