Our Work
JOIN USOn this page: Our Pillars | Our Projects
Our Pillars
As diverse as the islands themselves and the people who love them, our work at Friends reaches across a wide spectrum of projects and issues all focused on the four guiding pillars of our organization.
Accessibility
National parks belong to all of us. Our strong partnership with the National Park Service, business partners, and organizations is removing barriers for people of all abilities to explore the Apostle Islands. Our Access for All campaign is helping to fund an accessible ramp at Meyers Beach (scheduled for 2025) and other accessibility projects. We’ve also funded the all-accessible Stockton Island amphitheater, a viewing stand at Little Sand Bay and included accessibility tools on our website. The need to enhance park accessibility for all is a major goal of Friends and the National Park Service and is an important focus of our work.
Education
The heart of our parks is the people who explore them, learn about them, love them, and then work to protect them. If the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore is to thrive in the face of changing times, we must work to keep (or make) the park relevant to both current and future generations. Friends works to connect with all demographics including those who have yet to experience our national parks to ensure a strong base of park users, park supporters, and park lovers through our support of programs like Stewards of Tomorrow, and Island School. We also offer adult education through programs, publications, outreach, podcasts, and more.
Service
To love a place is to give back. Friends offers our members a wide variety of ways to give back to the islands. Plant beach grass on the Raspberry Island sandspits or mainland beaches to prevent erosion, tend the historic gardens at the Michigan Island Lighthouse or the Gaylord A. Nelson garden on the headquarters grounds, build bat houses, participate in litter pickups to keep trash out of the lake and off our islands, educate beach walkers about the fragility of nesting piping plovers, help with public outreach at events, all of these and more help you help the islands you love.
Stewardship
How do we preserve history in the park? How do we ensure that others can experience the dark skies or diversity of wildlife for generations to come? We become stewards of this place. Friends works with the park to provide funding for projects like the restoration of historic structures, purchasing bear boxes to keep both campers and wildlife safe, exploring the role of Citizen Science projects in the park, purchasing solar shares for the new Visitor Center at Little Sand Bay to lower its carbon footprint, and considering a Dark Sky designation to keep the stars shining bright. We all have a hand in the future. Help us use it wisely.
Safe boating is informed boating
Wave Watch is a partnership with UW-Madison and the National Park Service to deploy a system of 5-8 solar-powered buoys in the Apostle Islands, giving kayakers, sailors, and power boaters real-time wave and wind information refreshed every 30 minutes, 24 hours a day. Real information when you need it most.
Help us return the buoys to the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in the summer of 2024 and beyond.
Starry Skies Initiative
The Apostle Islands Starry Skies Initiative, launching in 2024, seeks to protect night sky resources in and around the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore through the identification and monitoring of light pollution, public outreach, increasing awareness, and a potential designation for the Apostle Islands as an International Dark Sky Park through the International Dark Sky Association (IDA).
You can help keep those stars shining bright.
Our Projects
Friends works closely with the staff of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore to coordinate projects that most benefit the park and with the help of members like you ensure the quality of our park far into the future.
Click each of the tabs displayed below to learn more about projects related to our four pillars.
Accessibility
Annual Friends cruise celebrates Apostle Islands and people who love this special place
During the annual Friends cruise, they enjoyed good food, good company and the unmatched beauty of islands. They heard an update on the Meyers Beach accessible path project, the largest Friends initiative to date. And they also received an invitation to continue their support. Not only for today, but for future generations.
Meyers Beach accessibility project under way
With a turn of the shovel, the long-awaited Meyers Beach accessible path project has begun. A partnership between the National Park Service, the National Park Foundation, and Friends of the Apostle Islands, the $690,000 project will replace the 47-step stairway down a 23-foot sand bank with an accessible 3% grade pathway leading to one of the most popular beaches and kayak launching sites in the Islands and the starting point for viewing the famous Ice Caves in the winter.
Upcoming tree removal and summer construction progress at Meyers Beach
On May 12, contractors will complete scheduled tree removal activities in the project area. While no public closures are expected, visitors may notice active crews and equipment on site throughout the day.
Friends Earth Day event draws dozens of volunteers, lakeshore lovers to Bayfield
What’s your memory of your first Earth Day? Friends Executive Director Jeff Rennicke asked the audience step back in time as he recounted the history of Earth Day and it’s everlasting connection to the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. And he asked everyone to roll up their sleeves.
It’s happening at Meyers Beach!
Thanks to the support of people like you, the National Park Service and Friends of the Apostle Islands are proud to announce the awarding of a construction contract for the accessible pathway at Meyers Beach.
Friends cruise guests experience the magic of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore
It was a magical night in the Apostle Islands for guests on the sold-out Friends of the Apostle Islands cruise. Magical because Canadian wildfire smoke that had shrouded northern Wisconsin for weeks disappeared just in time. Magical because nearly glass-calm conditions made it easy to dine on catered delicacies and home-made treats. And magical because many guests chose to cool off by wading in the cool clear waters of Julian Bay, then capped off the evening with a beautiful sunset.
Education
How smart lighting choices can protect our precious night sky, save energy and money – a Dark Sky Star Bright Festival event
In my business. In my community. How do I help protect the night sky, one lightbulb at a time?” To answer that question, outdoor lighting expert, Electrical Engineer and Dark Sky advocate Scott Lind took a deep dive into the rapidly-evolving field of outdoor lighting science, technology and design.
Apostle Islands lullaby: Local author creates children’s book
Anyone who has spent time on Lake Superior knows that this lake has a voice. It is with the voice of Mother Superior in mind that local author and artist Michelle Lee has created a new children’s book that sings of sea caves and lake waves.
Friends donation supports Apostle Islands National Lakeshore Junior Rangers program
In support of our Education Pillar, the Friends board of directors approved a request from the park to pay for printing of 2,000 booklets, to support the Lakeshore’s ongoing Junior Rangers program.
Raspberry Island birds of yesterday and today
I spent nine days in early August on Raspberry Island as a volunteer-in-park leading tours of the historic light station. To prepare for this assignment I re-read the fascinating diary of light keeper Francis Jacker who served at Raspberry Island from 1885 to 1892. An interesting aspect of the diary is that Mr. Jacker noted natural history events as well as happenings at the lighthouse. I particularly enjoyed his descriptions of the birds that he saw on the island. This gave me the opportunity to compare the birds I saw with what Francis Jacker noticed more than 130 years ago.
Apostle Islands Wave Watch buoys pulled for the 2024 season – With your help, they’ll be back in 2025
On September 17th, a team including the National Park Service, the University of Wisconsin Coastal Resilience and Suitability Lab and Friends of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore retrieved the buoys from five locations in the park. The process involved locating each buoy, using a boat hook to grab the line connecting the solar-powered yellow buoy to additional red buoys, a high-visibilty flag, and 70 pounds of anchor weight then hauling everything into the park service boat. The team used a new system developed by UW Research Scientist Josh Anderson to make retrieving the heavy anchor weights from the lake bottom safer and easier.
The many berries of Raspberry Island
The Ojibwe name Miskominikaani-minis refers to the “island of raspberries.” We now call this place Raspberry Island. While it is true that wild raspberries grow there, anyone who walks the beach, hikes the trails, or visits the lighthouse during the summer will quickly notice that raspberries are not the only berries found on the island. Lighthouse keepers regularly gathered the wild fruit that grows on the island. Keeper Francis Jacker frequently mentioned berries in his diary.
Stewardship
You’re invited! Friends Earth Day event set for Saturday, April 25th in Bayfield
“Our Power, Our Planet” is the theme of Earth Day 2026 and it fits right in with Friends of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore’s focus on stewardship and volunteerism to support the Lakeshore We Love.
Friends volunteers refresh Gaylord Nelson Memorial Garden for spring
Another sure sign of the spring: the Friends of the Apostle Islands volunteer gardeners hard at work on the Gaylord Nelson gardens at the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.
Business Member Spotlight: Port Superior Marina – Gateway to the Islands
Tucked safely into a quiet bay just two miles south of Bayfield, Port Superior Marina with its over 200 slips, is a prime gateway to the adventure, beauty, and history of the Apostle Islands. Recently, we sat down with Morgan Wright of the Port Superior Marina team to discuss their long-time commitment to safe boating, the islands, and their support of Friends of the Apostle Islands.
Wave Watch buoys are live! Watch the deployment video and learn how the buoys can help you stay safe on the water
On the morning of May 29th, a team loaded a National Park Service boat with buoys, anchor lines, hardware and high-visibility flags, then set out from Roy’s Point for the north end of Long Island – the entrance to Chequamegon Bay. There, they deployed the first solar-powered spotter buoy for the 2024 season, as part of the Wave Watch boater safety project. In this story, you’ll learn how a series of high-tech buoys collect that data and how you can access the information as simply as scanning a QR Code with your cell phone.
Celebrate the northern lights by giving back to the night sky
The sky danced. Not just over the Apostle Islands but as far south as Florida and Texas here in the U.S. and around the world. You watched the lights. You scrolled the photographs, now give something back to the northern lights. Here’s five things you can do.
Know before you go: Get your free Wave Watch QR code cling for the upcoming boating season
One scan of this new Wave Watch QR Code and you’ll be safer on the water this boating season. Friends of the Apostle Islands has partnered with researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the National Park Service to create Wave Watch, a series of strategically placed weather buoys offering boaters free, real-time wind and wave data for five popular boating locations in the Apostle Islands starting in June of 2024.
Service
Friends volunteers tend Gaylord Nelson Memorial Garden, first of many gardening opportunities
The first green shoots emerge from the warming earth as spring arrives in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. Outside of park headquarters in Bayfield and on the grounds of iconic island lighthouses, the gardens will grow, with help from green-thumbed Friends of the Apostle Islands volunteers.
Planting history: Volunteers tend the Michigan Island gardens
National Park history is often depicted on interpretive signs and in ranger talks. It is displayed in glass cases and glossy brochures. But in the Apostle Islands, history is alive and blooming in the historic gardens of the Michigan Island Lighthouse.
Friends volunteers prepare Gaylord Nelson Memorial Garden for a vibrant summer display
The Gaylord Nelson Memorial Garden outside of National Park Service headquarters in Bayfield is ready to put on a vibrant show this summer, thanks to volunteers with Friends of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. The volunteers gathered on a sunny day in late May to remove weeds, invasive species and debris from the prior growing season, to give the desired plant species the room to grow and bloom.
Friends volunteers complete Earth Day Community Clean-Up
Friends of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore volunteers gathered outside of National Park Service Headquarters in Bayfield on a brisk, cloudy Saturday morning to help keep trash out of Lake Superior and the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. They enjoyed hot coffee and fresh scones before heading out to collect trash. They filled more than a dozen bags by the time their work was done.
Earth Day Community Clean-up in Bayfield set for Saturday, April 20th
As part of Earth Day 2024, please join us for a community clean-up in Bayfield on Saturday, April 20th. This year’s Earth Day theme is Planet vs. Plastics, so we’re doing what we can to keep plastics and other trash out of Lake Superior.
Friends volunteers follow in the footsteps of Michigan Island keepers and gardeners
It’s a tough act to follow the lightkeepers of old. They were known for tending things - be it brass, the tower light or their flowers. Their gardens at the light stations reflected sincere diligence and pride. Each spring, usually the second week in June, Friends of...