The multiagency Buffalo Reef Task Force has made several advances in it’s research and is continuing work to protect the area.

Over the past 100 years historic copper mine tailings from the Wolverine and Mohawk mines, called stamp sands, were deposited at a milling site along Lake Superior in Gay. The stamp sands have been moved by winds and waves south down the shoreline about 5 miles. The movement has inundated natural sand beach areas and threatens to cover spawning habitat and recruitment areas that are important to whitefish and lake trout associated with Buffalo Reef at Grand Traverse Bay. 

The north-south dividing line for the stamp sands migration is the mouth of the Traverse River. Crews have worked over the past few years to excavate and move stamp sands back from Lake Superior to limit movement farther south. Powerful fall and winter storms historically aid the movement of the sands which further threatens the reef.

“The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy recently hired a contractor to keep the harbor near Buffalo Reef clear during fall and winter storm events,” said task force member Stephanie Swart, Lake Superior coordinator for EGLE. “The first movement of stamp sands took place in mid-November. Last year, this work was funded by the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community. The current contract will remain in place through the end of February 2022.”

One storm in the fall disrupted lake trout egg studies on the reef. The storm washed plastic egg-trap cylinders to shore. 

“These cylinders are a component of egg traps put on Buffalo Reef by biologists from the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission and the U.S. Geological Survey,” said Mike Lowe, a fisheries biologist with the USGS. “The egg traps were placed on the eastern hump of Buffalo Reef during the last week of October with the purpose of collecting fertilized eggs from spawning lake trout. Unfortunately, a major storm in the following days destroyed most of the egg traps and released the cylinders in the water. Biologists have been walking the beaches north and south of the harbor entrance during subsequent research trips and have collected some of the cylinders.”

Egg-trap cylinders like these have been washing up along the Lake Superior shoreline after a strong fall storm disrupted lake trout traps. Photo credit: Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

Anyone who finds a cylinder should call Bill Mattes, Great Lakes section leader for GLIFWC, at 715-682-6619, ext. 2120 or email [email protected].


To see the original report and access Michigan Department of Natural Resources media releases with more information on the projects, follow this link to the UPmatters.com website. https://www.upmatters.com/outdoors/buffalo-reef-task-force-advances-research-goals-prepares-for-wint...