By Paul J Sniadecki, MLSA Director
Traveling from all parts of Michigan, and as far away as Texas and South Carolina, 318 people made their way to the Crystal Mountain resort to experience the 58th Annual MLSA Conference.
President Mike Gallagher and Vice President John Wilks opened the Friday May 3 General Session to a standing room only assembly. MI Governor Gretchen Whitmer also welcomed participants via an exclusive digital video. The Governor also thanked riparians for the work they do to protect Michigan’s surface water.
Keynote Speaker Dr Alan Steinman, Director, Annis Water Institute, Grand Valley State University then energized the conference with his concept of managing Michigan’s water resources on both the individual watershed and macro-area watersheds basis. Dr Steinman’s presentation provided the basis for the many following break-out sessions focused on innovative lake stewardship.
Over 90% of the attendees welcomed the Friday evening changes, which featured elimination of the banquet, in favor of snacks followed by heavy Hors D’oeuvres (really a buffet), expanded cash bar time, and three hours to visit exhibitors and network with fellow riparians. Everyone also enjoyed the new Saturday morning “Breakfast with Cliff Bloom, Riparian Law Expert” opportunity to learn the most recent developments in Riparian Law.
MLSA experimented with Digital Video Recording of several break-out sessions and collected many PDF copies of the presentations. Access to these resources will be limited to conference registrants, as well as to Lake Association, Organization/Corporation, and Individual MLSA Members in good standing. More details on access will be available in the future.
A future article in THE MICHIGAN RIPARIAN magazine will provide more in-depth coverage of the 2019 MLSA Conference proceedings.