Lake Pontchartrain’s recovery can be traced back, largely, to the creation of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, now called The Pontchartrain Conservancy, in 1989. A group of New Orleans and Northshore citizens and scientists had enough of the constant poor water quality and loss of habitat that had plagued the lake for nearly a century. Throughout the 1990s and beyond, the Foundation’s “Save Our Lake” campaign became ubiquitous across the region with countless cars emblazoned with the simple and direct message in blue and white bumper stickers.