The Challenge

While once the most efficient way to generate electricity for our community, over time the dams began to deteriorate. In the late 1960s, Consumers Energy left the hydroelectric business on the Boardman -Ottaway River and sold the 310-acre property containing Sabin and Boardman Dams to Grand Traverse County for $1. Today, this land is Grand Traverse County’s Natural Education Reserve (NER).

“Rivers are the veins of the Earth, and Anishinaabek have always lived among the land and water in good relation, because we recognize that spirit.”

Over his lifetime, Hank has watched the river shift toward rebirth after a century of degradation through colonial extraction. This is the largest dam removal effort in Michigan’s history and one of the most significant in the Great Lakes Basin.

Removing the dams reconnected 160 miles of river and tributaries that were fragmented for the past 150 years.

In 2009, both the City of Traverse City and Grand Traverse County decided to remove the three remaining nonoperational dams. The Conservation District was heavily involved in the dam removal process, serving as land managers for both the County and the City since 1992this partnership still exists today.

In 2018, Sabin Dam, which sat within the NER, was the last dam to be removed. This dam had acted as a highlytrafficked footbridge that connected the east and west sides of the river, allowing anglers, hikers, and NER visitors access to all 525 acres of remarkable property, which includes nearly five miles of Boardman-Ottaway River. With the removal of Sabin Dam, the community’s ability to cross the river was severed.

Without a way to cross the Boardman-Ottaway River, NER users must get in their cars to drive either north or south via a road bridge to access the trails on the other side of the river. With no continuous trail loop, visitors on foot must backtrack in order to experience the entirety of the NER, causing trail congestion and a less-than-ideal user experience.

Bailey is excited for the river to be a river again. “The river has a right, just as we do, to thrive.” The restoration of the Boardman River honors that the river is ‘more than just water.’ “Anishinaabek teachings tell us to honor the water as a spirit, as you would any other living being. When the river is sick, everything around it becomes sick too.”