Beaver Island Michigan

The BIA Board has has written to the Army Corps senior officer for the Great Lakes and the director of Michigan's Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy Water Resources Division seeking assistance with developing plans for responding to high lake levels. "Unique environments are at risk. Home and property values are threatened and, as a result the island’s tax base is also at risk. Failure to properly address the issue threatens the island’s environmental and economic sustainability. I have attached pictures from some of our members that show some of the damage so far on the east side. If the lake continues to rise as predicted, the consequences could be dire," says BIA President Kevin Boyle in the letter. The BIA asks for on-island assistance in developing effective plans for dealing with the high water and wind-wave driven erosion. The effects are unrelated to flood insurance issues. More information and a copy of the letter are available on the BIA website: beaverislandassociation.org

If you are a shoreline owner on Lake Michigan, the International Joint Commmission wants to hear from you. Please take a few minutes to share your photos and information. https://ijc.org › glam › watershed › questionnaire › high-water-levels-2019

Thank you.

This is a more direct link:

https://ijc.org/en/glam/watershed/quest ... evels-2019
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An interesting article from November 2019 on the past high water events of 1986:

https://www.northernexpress.com › news › feature › weve-been-here-before

I would agree that this time, the east winds driving the high water, have dominated the weather pattern making it worse for areas such as Beaver Island.

Sorry for the bad link. To access this November 2019 article which mentions Beaver Island, you may need to google: Northern Express News we've been here before

Not encouraging news:

https://www.mlive.com/news/2020/02/fixe ... higan.html

This is an interesting video on a product used for erosion control called "TrapBag" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZqUAl9 ... mb_rel_end

Here is a link to the TrapBag website where more information can be found - https://trapbag.com/erosion-control?gcl ... gLuqvD_BwE

For all those struggling with this situation, our hearts are with you.
Sheri Richards

We have been contacted to invite Beaver Island residents to join NOAA in the Great Lakes for a webinar addressing water levels in the Great Lakes.
It is not yet spring and already the five Great Lakes are currently near or exceeding record levels due to an abundance of precipitation, highlighted by rainfall and snow melt. Impacts from these levels are widespread and present a number of challenges to those in and around the basin.

We would like to invite you to a multi-partner public webinar on April 13 at 11 am EDT where we will share information on the following:

The conditions that contributed to the high water levels
The climate outlook from 2 weeks through the next season
Some of the impacts from high lake levels
The typical watches and warnings that may occur around the Lakes due to high levels
An outlook for the lake levels themselves
We plan on taking questions at the end that the panel of experts can respond to.

Our panelists will include:

Doug Kluck - NOAA Central Regional Climate Services Director
Jeff Andreson - Michigan State Climatologist
John Allis - Army Corps of Engineers
Brandon Krumweide - NOAA NOS office for Coastal Management.
Gary Garnet - NOAA National Weather Service
Please sign up here:

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/regist ... 7483824140

Feel free to invite any others you think would be interested.


Jennifer Day
Regional Coordinator
Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Team
USDOC/NOAA
4840 State Rd., Ann Arbor, MI 48108
(office) 734-741-2266
(personal cell) 313-909-3160
jennifer.day@noaa.gov

NOAA Regional Collaboration Network
Improving NOAA’s service to the Nation through collaboration
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcF07_f ... e=youtu.be