Superior Watershed Partnership leads beach grass planting at McCarty’s Cove alongside Michigan Healthy Climate Fellows
Trending
MARQUETTE -- On Thursday, Superior Watershed Partnership led a beach grass planting event at McCarty's Cove in Marquette alongside 13 Michigan Healthy Climate Fellows from across the state.
The Michigan Healthy Climate Fellows program is an 11-month-long program where fellows are placed in communities and organizations across the state to accelerate climate action. The program was started in 2024 by EGLE in its effort to "(accelerate) Michigan's Climate action through capacity building and leadership development," according to the Community Economic Development Association of Michigan’s webpage. There are currently two Healthy Climate Fellows in Marquette.
Fellows worked alongside Superior Watershed Partnership's Krystle Baecker to plant beach grass along a particularly eroded section of beach at McCarty's Cove.
"(This section of beach) is very eroded because of the open wave action you have hitting the beaches, especially in the winter when you get those giant shelves," said Baecker. "I think it's a combo of the waves, which are always going to erode, plus there's a lot of people that visit this beach, so the constant foot traffic, especially if people are walking through the beach grass. That's going to trample them down and not allow it to survive.
"We usually try to hit McCarty's because it's such a popular area so it experiences a lot of that erosion from human traffic."
SWP hosts volunteer beach grass plantings every summer, alongside their other volunteer events such as beach cleanups and invasive plant pullings.
Apart from volunteering with SWP, Baecker said that there are other things people can do to help prevent beach erosion.
"I usually try to look for where there's a specific sign for the beach," said Baecker, "because to me that signals that that's the path they want you to use, and just try to not walk over beach grass, especially where it's not that fully established."
Annie Lippert can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 550. Her email address is alippert@miningjournal.net.