TRAVERSE BAY — Dredging crews will return to the Grand Traverse Harbor in Houghton County this summer as efforts continue to save Buffalo Reef from being covered by stamp sand mining waste.

Over the past roughly 100 years, historic copper mine tailings from the Wolverine and Mohawk mines – called stamp sands – were deposited at a milling site along Lake Superior, located in the community of Gay in Keweenaw County.

Since that time, the stamp sands have been moved by winds and waves south down the shoreline roughly five miles, inundating natural sand beach areas and threatening to cover spawning habitat and recruitment areas important to Lake Superior whitefish and lake trout associated with Buffalo Reef.

The natural reef is located beneath the waters of Grand Traverse Bay.

To help comba

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