Editorial Policy

This page explains the rules the site holds itself to. They are short, and they are the same on every page.

Where the Facts Come From

Claims about water quality, boating rules, public access, fish advisories, and anything else with an official record are checked against the primary source: the state agency page, the watershed council's own reports, the county record, the ordinance text. Pages link those sources directly so readers can check the same documents. Summaries written by third parties, including AI search answers, are treated as leads to follow, never as sources to cite.

Facts That Can Change Carry Dates

Rules, fees, program statuses, and water-quality figures all change. Where a fact is perishable, the page says when it was checked, usually with wording like "as of" a stated month, and gets re-verified before major updates to that page. A dated fact that has aged is a signal to double-check, not a promise that nothing moved.

First-Hand Material

Some pages include observations from the author's own time on and around Lake Macatawa. Those passages describe real visits and are labeled as personal experience where the context does not already make it obvious. Photographs, as they are added, are the author's own unless a caption credits another source, with only light, honest edits.

Corrections

Errors get fixed, not defended. If you find something wrong or out of date, use the contact page. Reports are checked against the underlying sources, and pages are updated when the report holds up.

Independence

The site carries no advertising, accepts no sponsorships, and sells no placements. No business, organization, or agency has any influence over what gets written, and none has paid for coverage. Outbound links point to sources and useful official pages, never to anyone who paid to be there. Should any of that ever change, this page will say so in plain terms and spell out the relationship involved.

Content on this site is general information, may contain errors or become outdated, and is not legal, financial, environmental, or professional advice. See the Terms of Use.