Friends of Cayuga Lake

Community Supported Water Quality Projects

Friends of Cayuga Lake connects private donations with practical watershed projects that reduce pollution and improve water quality.

Across the Cayuga Lake watershed, there are important water quality projects ready to move forward. Many have been technically designed and may be eligible for state or federal funding, but can stall because of local match requirements or a lack of flexible dollars.

Friends of Cayuga Lake helps close those gaps.

By bringing together private support, public funding, and the expertise of local conservation partners, we can help move high-priority projects off the shelf and into action. Community gifts can provide the flexible funding needed to unlock larger grants, strengthen projects, and get more work done for Cayuga Lake.

You support → We partner → Projects get done →

Cayuga Lake benefits

What kinds of projects can Friends of Cayuga Lake support?

Projects may include:

Stabilizing eroding streambanks
Planting streamside buffers and native vegetation
Stabilizing roadside ditches and other sources of runoff
Partnering with family farms, businesses, municipalities, and landowners on pollution-reduction projects

These are practical, on-the-ground solutions that help keep sediment, phosphorus, and other pollution out of Cayuga Lake and its creeks.

Our First Project: West Branch of Cayuga Inlet Creek

Friends of Cayuga Lake reached its first major milestone with the completion of a water quality improvement project on the West Branch of Cayuga Inlet Creek in the beautiful southern headwaters of the watershed.

Working in partnership with the Tompkins County Soil and Water Conservation District, Friends of Cayuga Lake supported the final phase of a streambank stabilization and restoration project along a severely eroding section of creek that had been sending more than 2,000 tons of sediment downstream annually toward Cayuga Lake.

A leadership gift from Cayuga Lake Watershed Network members, together with landowner funding, provided the local match needed to leverage more than three times that amount in New York State Environmental Protection Fund support.

The completed project:

Regraded and stabilized failing streambanks
Used large stone and toe wood to prevent further erosion
Established native vegetation to anchor soils
Improved resilience during high-water storm events
Reduced sediment and phosphorus pollution downstream
Improved habitat for cold-water trout

This first project demonstrated what Friends of Cayuga Lake is designed to do: turn local generosity into larger, lasting investments in watershed health.

Help Launch the Next Project

High-priority water quality projects are being identified throughout the Cayuga Lake watershed, and private support can make the difference between a good project waiting for funding and a project moving forward.

Your gift provides flexible funding that can help meet local match requirements, leverage state and federal dollars, expand the scope of a project, or provide resources where traditional grants cannot.