__ Sessions in room A-1 __

64th Annual MLSA Conference: Friday, April 25 & Saturday, April 26, 2025

Friday Agenda

8AM – Breakfast Served

9AM – Welcome from Melissa DeSimone, MLSA Executive Director
Keynote Speaker – David Ullrich: A Life Enriched by Lakes and Streams, David is the Former Deputy Regional Administrator for US EPA, Great Lakes Region and Former Executive Director of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative

10:30AM to Noon – Break Out, 3 session choices
– A Lawyer, a Farmer, and a Journalist Walk Into a Bar: Straight Talk About Dirty Water – Speakers: Carrie La Seur, Legal Director, For Love of Water; Keith Schneider, Journalist for Circle of Blue; Dennis Kellogg, Michigan Farmers Union Board Member
– Local Issues, Local Solutions: How Conservation Districts can help solve nonpoint source pollution issues in watersheds – Speakers: Ben Jordan and Sarah Bowman from the Ottawa Conservation District and Chelsey Lawton and Emily Cooper from the Muskegon Conservation District
– Lesson in Lake Association Leadership – Speaker: Mike Needham, Klinger Lake

Noon to 1PM – Lunch

1PM to 2:30PM – Break Out, 3 session choices
– Zoning for Shorelines: Best Practices and Lessons Learned from East Bay Charter Township – Speakers: Mary Reilly, AICP, MSU Extension and Claire Karner, AICP, Director of Planning and Zoning, East Bay Charter Township
– Innovative Communications – Speaker: Paige Filice, MSU Center for Lakes and Streams and
     – The power of storytelling: Common Groundwater, a case study – Speaker: Grace Noyola, Communications Director, Michigan Environmental Council
– Annis Water Resources Institute Student Research Reports – Speakers: TBA

3PM – Special Session – Large Displacement Wave Impacts to Inland Lakes: A Summary of Current Studies and Implications – Speakers: Timothy E. Tyre, PhD, Senior Scientist and Charles Luebke, Director of Field Operations, Terra Vigilis Environmental Services Group

5PM – Happy Hour and Awards Presentations – Scholarships, Riparian of the Year

6PM – Dinner

7PM – Featured Session – Riparian Attorney Q&A with Cliff Bloom (All your legal lake and stream questions answered!)

Saturday Agenda

7:30AM Breakfast served
8AM – Breakfast with Cliff Bloom – An annual update on Riparian Rights and Current Cases

9AM – Break Out, 3 session choices
– Leveraging Digital Optical Data for Improving Water Quality – Speakers: Rob Karner, Watershed Biologist for the Glen Lake Association and Hari Kandel, PhD, Associate Professor at Lake Superior State University **Followed by a discussion of the Friday afternoon general session: Large Displacement Wave Impacts to Inland Lakes: A Summary of Current Studies and Implications with the Terra Vigilis Environmental Services Group
– Producing More and Better Grant Proposals – Speaker: Mark Ogland-Hand, Grants and Foundation Relations Manager, Michigan Environmental Council
– TBA

11AM to 12:30PM – Break Out, 3 session choices
– Climate Considerations:
     – Change in the Michigan Mind – Speaker: Dr. Denise Keele, Executive Director, Michigan Climate Action Network
     – A Changing Climate and the Fishery – Speaker: Dr. Joe Nohner, Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Fisheries Division
– Play the Watershed Game and learn to reduce nutrient inputs that can cause harmful algal blooms – Speakers: Erica Clites and Angela Scapini, Extension Educators, Michigan Sea Grant
– Protecting Manoomin: Integrating Conservation and Cultural Preservation – Speakers: Roger LaBine, Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior and Kathleen Smith, Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission
– Option 1: Field Trip for monitoring of Muskegon Lake aboard the Jackson, leaving from the Annis Water Resources Institute

12:30PM to 1:30PM – Lunch

1:30PM to 3PM – Break Out, 3 session choices
– Lake Management Projects:
     – Hypoxia in Inland Lakes: Dynamics, Consequences, and Mitigation – Speaker: Dr. Jennifer L. Jermalowicz-Jones, CLP, CLM, Certified Professional Watershed Manager, Restorative Lake Sciences
     – Swimmers Itch on Crystal Lake – Speaker: David Wynne, Crystal Lake and Watershed Association
– Title TBA – Speaker: Sara Pearson, Director of Michigan Geological Survey
– Enforcing Ordinances – Speaker: Ashleigh Russett, Attorney with Bloom Sluggett
– Option 2: Field Trip for monitoring of Muskegon Lake aboard the Jackson, leaving from the Annis Water Resources Institute