Sleeping Bear Dunes Kicks Off Restoration Work At Platte Point

The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore has commenced a new project to restore Platte Point Beach, the park announced on Monday. The project will briefly affect public accessibility of the beach, located between Frankfort and Empire, at the point where the Platte River flows into Lake Michigan.

Specifically, the project will necessitate the closure of the northern parking lot at Platte Point Beach, and could require closures of other parts of the beach or connecting roadways, “depending on project activities.” The public will still be able to access the beach by way of the larger southern parking lot, and the Platte Point boat launch will also remain open for the duration of the project.

The rehabilitation work is intended “to remove several thousand cubic yards of spoil material dredged from the mouth of the Platte River and placed along the adjacent beach and dune areas.” Following the removal of spoils from the site, affected parts of the beach and riverbank “will be recontoured and planted to support restoration of the area to pre-dredging conditions.”

According to a press release about the project, “deposition of spoils on the shoreline occurred from 1968 to 2017.” Those operations ceased after an “environmental assessment of National Park Service actions at Platte Point and a public comment period,” after which the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore “initiated the restoration actions currently underway.” Funding for the project comes from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.