Minnesota’s frozen lakes might be great for a long weekend of ice fishing, but as anglers set up camp for days to drop a line with no proper disposal for human waste, that ice also often becomes the perfect platform for those anglers to set down their garbage and forget about it.
These are problems Robyn Dwight started tackling three years ago, and her work earned her the 2024 Community Conservationist Award presented by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and Minnesota Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts (MASWCD).
“Robyn exemplifies the spirit of the award, a citizen who has dedicated untold hours and energy toward the cause of improving the water quality of the precious lakes of Minnesota,” said Glenn Skuta, director of the MPCA’s Watershed Division.

Dwight was recognized for expanding Keep It Clean, a nonprofit that provides resources such as a website, educational signs, and videos with the aim of keeping garbage off the ice. It’s a coalition that has grown to include organizations that oversee more than 50 lakes, including Upper Red Lake, where Dwight lives in the east-shore town of Waskish. With so many people involved in this work, Dwight was quick to share the spotlight.
“I wasn't starting from zero,” she said. “I had a lot of people who already were in agency roles who were saying, ‘Hey, yeah, we can do this. We can help you.’ So when I was nominated, I was pretty surprised and humbled.”
Dwight was nominated for the award by Brent Rud, manager of the Beltrami (County) Soil and Water Conservation District.
“The Keep It Clean movement would still be a small, unique program on Lake of the Woods if it wasn’t for Robyn’s persistence and dedication,” Rud said. “Robyn helped to establish a regional Keep It Clean committee, which quickly grew into a statewide initiative.”
Dwight has used numerous strategies for this expansion. She and her husband, Brian, volunteered for all 12 days of the State Fair last summer. She procured Clean Water Fund grant money from the MPCA and Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources, and from a local soil and water conservation district. She helped place a full-page ad in the 2024 fishing regulations booklet printed by the Department of Natural Resources. She obtained a fish house to use as a mobile educational unit and erected billboards to spread the message.
“Robyn knows how to get things done,” said Mike Hirst, a resource conservationist for the Lake of the Woods SWCD who co-founded Keep it Clean. “We need more Robyn Dwights in this world!”
Taking care of business
Ice fishing is a popular and increasingly comfortable recreation. Dwight said two years ago, 80,000 people visited Upper Red Lake in three months. Two-thirds used wheelhouses, and three-fourths stayed overnight. These wheelhouses, large trailers where people can live for days or weeks at a time, have created a need for more infrastructure for the proper disposal of human waste.
“In some cases, we had no doubt it was going in the lake,” Dwight said, “because we could see brown trails left on the ice where people would discharge their holding tanks.”
Recognizing this urgent need, Dwight helped start a dumpster program specifically for toilet bags. A licensed hauler places the bins along the lakeshore and later hauls away the waste. In 2023, the Upper Red Lake Keep It Clean Partnership group received a $92,600 grant from the Clean Water Fund and two more for $10,500 each through the Beltrami SWCD to expand the program. What started with four dumpsters has doubled. Keeping this waste separate from other garbage protects people and the environment in numerous ways.
“We do not want a situation where garbage is going to be contaminated with toilet bags,” Dwight said. “We don't want people leaving it on the ice in shopping bags. We don't want them stuffing it in garbage cans from here to Minneapolis at gas stations.”
New state law includes $100 fine
The Keep It Clean movement also was instrumental in getting a 2023 state law on the books that outlaws setting garbage down on the ice. The law includes a $100 fine that the conservation officers at the Department of Natural Resources can use to bolster compliance.
“There's lots of laws in the summertime to take care of state parks and lakes, but there was nothing in the wintertime,” Dwight said.

Minnesota lawmakers and the ice fishing community were quick to support the law. Dwight said most winter anglers are sick of the bad reputation they get because of the few people who litter. And no matter how well-intentioned most anglers may be, the Keep It Clean message is for everyone.

“People who say, ‘I'm just going to place my garbage on the ice; I'll pick it up when I go,’” Dwight said. “Those bags freeze to the ice. You can't chip them out. So not only have you got the contents of the bag, but you've got broken bits of plastic in the water. So it's an environmental nightmare, unless you have somebody that can run a program like ours to manage the waste.”
After one year with the new law and education efforts, Dwight said residents on Upper Red Lake reported improved conditions.
“The amount of garbage left on the ice has been almost completely eliminated,” Dwight said. “The people who live up here last spring were saying they didn't pick up any garbage off the beach. It was so clean.”
Tips for keeping lake ice clean
Keep it Clean suggests five action items for ice anglers and other visitors to Minnesota's frozen lakes to comply with state law.
- Make a plan for trash and waste removal before you hit the ice.
- Use colored garbage bags, not white, for increased visibility.
- Do not place garbage and waste on or under the ice.
- Make sure your garbage is secure before departing.
- Remove all foundations and insulation when moving a fish house.