Lakeshore Restoration

Thoms Bros. offers design, consultation, and installation services to develop a lakefront lot that will allow the lawn and buildings to blend into an artistic natural setting, rather than replace the wild lakeshore with turf, rocks and steel. Our landscape designers can create a unique lakefront home instead of a typical subdivision house and yard. In addition to creating a unique lot, the natural shoreline will minimize pollution, protect the shoreline from erosion and provide a home for the wildlife that lives at the water’s edge.

Thoms Bros. works on all phases of development (pre-construction, construction, & post-construction) with the following goals: 

• Consult and manage site to prevent and minimize native plants from being removed. 
• Keep lawn and other high maintenance plants away from water’s edge to help prevent pollutants from flowing into water source. 
• Maintain native brush on steep slopes. If non-existent, avoid using retaining walls and use long-rooted native plants and shrubs or rock rip-rap to control erosion. 
• Keep boating and swimming areas as small as possible to maintain native shoreline. Use lawn to meander among plantings as pathway to these areas. 
• Use plants that historically grew along the lakeshore in the local area. Native plants will be easier to establish, grow more luxuriously and require less maintenance.

Our Vice President, Steven D. Thoms, CGIP, APLD, CLP is a Michigan Certified Natural Shoreline Professional. Steve took a three day classroom instruction and a one-day field exercise to equip him to design, implement, and maintain natural shoreline landscapes on inland lakes. To learn more about MCNSP, click here.

Thoms Bros. recognizes that not all sites are candidates for a natural shoreline and/or clients might desire more traditional methods for part of their shoreline. That is why we offer StoneMakers as a seawall for an alternative. Using StoneMakers will give you the strength and durability of a traditional steel seawall plus the natural look. In our lakeshore restoration we can include both a natural shoreline and a stone looking seawall to give you the best of both worlds.