Join the Association
Approximately 80% of our annual budget pays for inspectors at the public boat access. When that program runs, this lake stays clean. When it doesn’t, neither does the lake.
The public boat access on the west shore is the single most likely point of entry for zebra mussels, starry stonewort, Eurasian milfoil, and other aquatic invasive species. For years, Association-funded inspectors have been stationed there during the busiest weeks of the boating season, checking trailers, hulls, and live wells of every boat coming in and going out.
That program is why Grace Lake remains — as of 2025 — free of the AIS that have transformed nearby waters. The single curly-leaf pondweed specimen found in July 2025 likely came in long before modern inspection protocols; every dollar we spend now is to prevent the next one.
Make your check payable to “Grace Lake Watershed Improvement Association” for $50 (annual dues) and mail to our Treasurer:
Please include your name(s), Grace Lake address, phone number, and email so we can keep you on the mailing list for the newsletter and annual meeting notice.
Any donation over and above the $50 dues is tax-deductible and goes into our spendable budget. We partner with the Northwest Minnesota Foundation’s Grace Lake Charitable Fund for online giving and memorial donations.
Donations made through the Foundation are processed securely and a receipt is emailed directly from NW MN Foundation for tax purposes.
This is a heavier year than usual, and dues alone will not cover it. If you can give an additional $250 to $500, it goes directly to lake protection.
Here is the honest picture. Finding the curly-leaf pondweed took two surveys this summer. Our $5,000 grant covers the delineation survey that mapped the beds — $1,664.78. It does not cover the point-intercept survey that located the plants in the first place, which was the necessary first step and comes to $4,689.11 paid by the Association directly.
At the same time, costs for our public-access monitoring program have risen, and outside contributions we have counted on in past years are not assured going forward. Looking to next spring, the board is working with the MN DNR and AIS specialists to determine whether managing the roughly 20 to 25 acres of curly-leaf now mapped on the lake is advisable, and how. No decision has been made — but should treatment be the recommended path, herbicide runs $300 to $500 per acre. Our grant does cover CLP management, but it was written when we expected to be treating something in the range of 1 to 10 acres. It will not stretch across everything the survey found.
None of this is cause for alarm. The Association is on solid footing and the board is planning carefully. But this is a year where extra giving genuinely changes what we are able to do.
Where the extra dollars go
Thank you for supporting Grace Lake. Every check, every online gift, every extra hour of volunteer inspector time adds up.
The Grace Lake Watershed Improvement Association is completely member-supported. No other local organization serves as the voice of lakeshore owners — and no other organization is funding the inspections that have kept this lake clean. The strength of the Association is directly proportional to the strength of its membership.
If you own property on Grace Lake, fish here, boat here, or simply care about the lake staying the way it is, your $50 matters. And if you can do more, that matters too.