The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (SBDNL) announced this week that after three years of planning with the Army Corps of Engineers, the long-needed dredge project has begun at North Manitou Island.

Over the next couple of weeks, the dredging contractor will be removing over 27,000 cubic yards of sand — enough to fill eight Olympic-sized swimming pools — that has accumulated around the North Manitou Island dock, at a cost of just under $500,000.

Tom Ulrich, deputy superintendent at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore tells the Leelanau Ticker that the National Park Service Regional Office augmented the initial funding for the dredging project after an emergency request, allowing for more sand to be removed. “We had structured the contract so that there was an option to add additional cubic yards should money come together.” He says after the dredging is complete, the hope is that access to the dock at North Manitou Island will continue for years. “We are hoping to get years out of this…years, plural.”

According to a post on SBDNL Facebook page, an environmental assessment was conducted by the Army Corps of Engineers that concluded there would be no significant environmental impact from the North Manitou Island dredge operation.

“Basically, you are simply moving sand a short distance from one place in the lake to another,” a SBDNL spokesperson said. Seasonal restrictions are in place to ensure no harm to spawning fish that might use the lake bottom.

The post added, “The North Manitou Island dredge project is just one of the projects Sleeping Bear Dunes is working on this summer to reduce the deferred maintenance backlog at the National Lakeshore. This one is particularly important, as it will enable the concessioner ferry service, Manitou Island Transit, to access North Manitou Island when they resume operations next year.”

Because of accessibility issues at both the North and South Manitou Island docks, the 4th-generation, family-run ferry company announced in June that for the first year in over 100, the Manitou Island Transit could not run service to South and North Manitou Islands and the Mishe-Mokwa would stay in the Leland Harbor this season.

Currently at South Manitou Island, the dock is underwater.

Says Ulrich, “The dock is under the surface of Lake Michigan, with the end of it bobbing underwater. We are taking existing funding, redirecting fee revenue, and putting off other projects in order to put forward a big chunk — $360,000 — to make that dock usable by next spring. We are working hard to salvage the dock.”

Photo courtesy Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore