lookout point
COASTLINE RECLAMATION Partnership project will repair eroded shoreline; restore habitat, public access Story, photos/illustrations by SWP staff
I
t’s called armoring. Or rip-rap. Or a rock revetment. Massive grey boulders, some five feet across and weighing half a ton, piled high in a futile attempt to keep Lake Superior at bay. It started almost a century ago, and they kept adding more and more boulders, decade after decade, until over a mile of natural shoreline and coastal habitat was completely buried under huge boulders. These boulders also barred anyone from reaching Lake Superior. And that’s how it’s been for as long as anyone can remember. Then the waters of Lake Superior started to rise at the same time the region was experiencing more frequent and more severe storm events. During one fall storm in October of 2017, a monitoring buoy deployed by the Superior Watershed Partnership (SWP) documented record-setting, 28-foot waves just north of Marquette. The lake started eroding portions of the shoreline and even began devouring Lakeshore Boulevard. The road had to be closed. Eventually over a mile of the road had to be moved 300 feet inland. This new drive along Lakeshore Boulevard is now a showpiece attraction for Marquette. But the project is not complete. The road has been moved but the shoreline is still in the same degraded condition: mostly buried under giant boulders. The lake is still inaccessible due to
Above, scenes such as this sprawling stretch of debris that was thrown up on the shore and across Lakeshore Boulevard in Marquette by a storm in October 2017, have become commonplace using coastal erosion-prevention techniques of the past. The Lake Superior Partnership is introducing new methods for restoring the shoreline that will make it usable for the public and will restore wildlife habitat.
October 2021
Marquette Monthly
45
