Back to the Beach

Presented by Clean Lakes Alliance & Madison Community Foundation’s Year of Giving

Clean Lakes Alliance is pleased to announce a partnership to bring our community “Back to the Beach,” fostering increased attention and care for our community’s vibrant public beaches.

Why “Back to the Beach”?

Our community has over 20 beaches and dozens of street-end parks on our five lakes, set along 58 miles of shoreline. Our Greater Madison beaches are vibrant places, but they have the potential to be so much more. Water quality issues and algae blooms have driven some people away from the water, and many of our lakeshore parks could use stormwater and infrastructure improvements.

As part of “Back to the Beach,” Clean Lakes Alliance is working to reignite community passion for our beaches and reimagine them as showcases for sustainability, function, and natural beauty.

We hope you can join in, starting with some exciting new projects:

Taking stock of what we have

Our local beaches and lakeshore parks are invaluable community assets. Clean Lakes Alliance will be completing a beach inventory to identify what we already have, and what condition it’s in. Email volunteer@cleanlakesalliance.org if you would to help with the inventory.

Reimagining what Madison beaches could be

We hosted the first “My Favorite Lake” student art contest open to first-through-eighth graders in Madison and surrounding communities. The contest gave kids a chance to share their vision of our lakes. Special congratulations to winners Elia, Zuri and Thavida! Visit the contest page to see the winning art.

In May, Clean Lakes Alliance renewed a partnership with UW-Madison Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. The partnership serves to support and sponsor the student capstone course focused on improving our beaches. Read more here.

Our beaches have so much potential. What could we achieve if we reimagined our beaches as healthy, sustainable, accessible community gathering spots? Browse below to see all the entries, and congratulations to our Reimagining Warner Beach design contest winners!