LAKE LINDEN, Mich. (AP) - Michigan officials say emergency dredging has been completed in Keweenaw County to restore the Grand Traverse Harbor channel for commercial and recreational boating.
The Department of Natural Resources says 9,000 cubic yards of sand was pumped to a beach north of the harbor.
It’s the fourth time since 2003 that the harbor has been dredged. The latest project cost $246,230.
The DNR says more extensive sand removal is needed to protect lake trout and whitefish spawning habitat on Buffalo Reef south of the harbor, which is on the east side of the Keweenaw Peninsula.
It’s an area where waste sands from long-ago copper mining have eroded into Lake Superior.
Nearly one-quarter of the annual lake trout yield from the lake’s Michigan waters comes from within 50 miles of Buffalo Reef.
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