Growing up on Schmidt Lake in Plymouth, Josh Leddy, owner and operator of Life’s a Beach Shoreline Services, has long loved the beauty of Minnesota’s lakes. Leddy got into the lake-weed maintenance business with a friend in 2004 as a summer job. Starting with five clients, Leddy offered his services to homeowners on Lake Minnetonka who had issues with lake weeds creeping up on shore or clogging swim areas. Now, business is booming—more than 250 Lake Minnetonka homeowners use Life’s a Beach to maintain the natural habitat of their shorelines.
“This truly is the lifestyle that I’m living,” Leddy says. “I’ve learned so much about aquatic invasive species, native aquatic species, the importance of them and I really feel that the type of service that we offer is the most beneficial to Lake Minnetonka.”
Leddy’s 13-person crew works only on Lake Minnetonka, and their techniques are “as lake-friendly as you can absolutely get,” Leddy says. This means chemicals and machinery are never used—just skilled free divers. The root base of native plants is left behind so that invasive plants can’t reestablish themselves.
Leddy also plans to volunteer his time and crew to clean up the trash on Cruiser’s Cove for the second year in a row this summer. “If we have more time and more resources, we will eventually go out to other islands as well,” Leddy says.
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