[HN Gopher] Man who shoveled new channel into Lake Michigan conv...
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       Man who shoveled new channel into Lake Michigan convicted
        
       Author : ww520
       Score  : 67 points
       Date   : 2024-02-11 23:29 UTC (23 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.msn.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.msn.com)
        
       | ungreased0675 wrote:
       | After reading the article it's still unclear why what he did was
       | bad? I presume some kind of negative ecological effect?
        
         | ww520 wrote:
         | I guess they want nature to take its course and to avoid impact
         | by human.
        
           | shermantanktop wrote:
           | I wish, but it's a little late for that. This decision is
           | mostly about which humans get to enjoy which aspect of the
           | river.
        
             | rrrix1 wrote:
             | Disagree. It's never too late to start doing the right
             | thing in matters of mother nature.
             | 
             | In this case, it's taking care of the riparian environment
             | near the mouth of a river. It doesn't always have to be
             | about human interests.
             | 
             | I looked at the pictures of Platt Beach, and I think the
             | NPS chose correctly.
             | 
             | https://maps.app.goo.gl/a2tPE7JRPNCFL9Ys7?g_st=ic
        
             | nerpderp82 wrote:
             | > but it's a little late for that
             | 
             | Myopically selfish comment. One can absolutely let nature
             | rebound. This one-way fatalism is shield for continuing to
             | make bad decisions.
        
               | shermantanktop wrote:
               | I'm not stating what _should_ be the case, merely talking
               | what _is_ the case as described in the article. The park
               | authorities want to make life easier for non-boating park
               | visitors, and that means making life harder for park
               | visitors with boats.
               | 
               | The fact that most people visiting the park prefer a more
               | natural, wilder-seeming environment is great. But
               | accommodating them is not the same as a proper
               | "rewilding" approach - which would presumably mean
               | removing access roads and trails, allowing seasonal
               | flooding, avoiding intervention for dangerous-to-human
               | wildlife, etc.
        
         | solardev wrote:
         | TLDR the Parks Service wanted to stop dredging that river,
         | despite having done it for years, because they wanted to shift
         | the focus to summertime visitors on foot and keeping the dunes
         | more natural.
         | 
         | That disappointed some fishermen who used to be able to
         | navigate into the bay with a boat. Tired of having to push
         | their boats over the last bit, they dug a channel themselves
         | instead.
         | 
         | The NY Times article has more info:
         | https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/09/us/michigan-river-nationa...
         | 
         | "Park officials decided to restore the river to its natural
         | state in 2016 after an environmental assessment found that the
         | sand and gravel dredged from the river mouth interfered with
         | dune vegetation and the enjoyment of beachgoers.
         | 
         | According to the assessment, dredging benefited "a small,
         | short-term user group compared to the deleterious effects for
         | the larger recreational groups during the full summer."
         | 
         | It was a controversial decision, prosecutors said in court
         | papers, because in the Platte River's natural, non-dredged
         | state, the river mouth became too shallow for boats to pass.
         | 
         | "If you had a boat, it sucked," said Brian Seiferlein, a
         | chartered fishing boat guide. "You would need two, three guys
         | to push your boat about three-fourths of a mile in ankle-deep
         | water.""
         | 
         | The environmental review is here:
         | https://parkplanning.nps.gov/showFile.cfm?projectID=60589&MI...
        
           | nonethewiser wrote:
           | > Park officials decided to restore the river to its natural
           | state in 2016 after an environmental assessment found that
           | the sand and gravel dredged from the river mouth interfered
           | with dune vegetation and the enjoyment of beachgoers.
           | 
           | The dune vegetation point seems very hand wavey.
           | 
           | The environment impact is rather long but it appears to
           | essentially say less human activity and boats may cause less
           | disturbance to wildelife. Although this seems to undermine
           | the point of it making the beach more accessible to other
           | humans. I didnt see any acute or specific harm cited like
           | damaging some endangered species or something.
           | 
           | Basically, it sounds like they just plain dont want boats to
           | be able to access the lake from the river. It seems like they
           | are repurposing the park and hiding behind the wildlife
           | assessment.
        
             | solardev wrote:
             | (TLDR... this area is subject to a specific kind of
             | protection that emphasizes protection over recreation. I
             | wanted talk a bit in general about how these things work,
             | because it's not super obvious from the outside. I'm not an
             | expert in any of this, but my undergrad was in
             | environmental science, where we talked a lot about this
             | stuff.)
             | 
             | > It seems like they are repurposing the park and hiding
             | behind the wildlife assessment.
             | 
             | "Park" here is a bit of an ambiguous term. This area was
             | designated a "National Lakeshore" in 1970, which is a lot
             | more protection than your typical county park would have.
             | In this case the federal government, by act of Congress,
             | stepped in and said they wanted to preserve this land for
             | the future, unimpaired. https://www.nps.gov/articles/nps-
             | designations.htm and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeping
             | _Bear_Dunes_National_L.... This protection is closer to
             | something like Yellowstone or Yosemite than your local
             | fishing spot. And apparently its management was always
             | contentious: https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/s
             | lbe/adhi_intro...
             | 
             | In other words, Congress specifically tasked the NPS to
             | _preserve_ this area, which is a specific designation that
             | is meant to emphasize natural resource preservation over
             | recreational usage. There are other land designations too,
             | both higher like wilderness (MUCH more protected) and lower
             | (like most USFS and BLM land, which can be managed for
             | resource extraction alongside recreation, with limited
             | conservation).
             | 
             | Probably the area shouldn't have ever been dredged for
             | recreation, if they were to follow the true spirit of the
             | law. But NPS personnel and values have changed over time
             | too, as well as our science, and over time it probably has
             | become more protective than in the past (like we don't feed
             | the bears in Yosemite anymore).
             | 
             | Most of Lake Michigan doesn't have this sort of
             | designation; it was only a few scenic spots that Congress
             | wanted to protect (most recently, Indiana's dunes were
             | added a few years ago).
             | 
             | > The environment impact is rather long but it appears to
             | essentially say less human activity and boats may cause
             | less disturbance to wildelife. Although this seems to
             | undermine the point of it making the beach more accessible
             | to other humans. I didnt see any acute or specific harm
             | cited like damaging some endangered species or something.
             | 
             | PDF pages 28 and 29 summarizes the impacts and tries to
             | weigh the pros and cons of various "alternatives". An
             | "alternative" here is just an "option", i.e., a bunch of
             | what-if scenarios. Alternative 2 is what they proposed, and
             | what was ultimately chosen (https://parkplanning.nps.gov/do
             | cument.cfm?documentID=83442). But the public comments on
             | that page are worth reading too, with anglers and other
             | community members wanting more access, more boat launches,
             | giving the land back to the state, etc.
             | 
             | This project ultimately resulted in a "FONSI", a "Finding
             | of No Significant Impact", which means the agency thought
             | that it wasn't a big enough deal to warrant a full
             | investigation. The environmental assessment they did was
             | just a preliminary review; if they had found significant
             | impacts, it would've turned into a much longer
             | investigation, like this 382-page environmental impact
             | statement for another seashore (https://parkplanning.nps.go
             | v/document.cfm?parkID=358&project...).
             | 
             | By contrast, even at 30-some pages, this is a pretty
             | typical EA. The agency has to be relatively thorough and
             | check a bunch of boxes, or they can risk getting sued by
             | environmental watchdogs, local activists, property owners &
             | developers, etc.
             | 
             | Aaaaaaaaanyway, I hope I don't sound like I'm lecturing
             | here. I don't have a dog in this race and I don't know all
             | the facts, I just wanted to somewhat briefly explain the
             | long and convoluted process that is NEPA (the National
             | Environmental Policy Act), which is a super important piece
             | of law that the government is absolutely terrible at
             | explaining or marketing. Even this overview flowchart is
             | super complicated, and the actual process is waaaaaay more
             | complex: https://www.fs.usda.gov/emc/nepa/revisions/include
             | s/docs/NEP...
             | 
             | For example, each stage of this process usually has a
             | public comment period, which is the "official" way for the
             | public to provide its input on projects. Sometimes they get
             | a lot of attention, but other times they fly totally under
             | the radar. I wish the government were more invested in
             | publicizing these things and getting the public to be aware
             | of them (such as mandatory notifications via email or
             | social media or SMS or whatever). But even when the public
             | does provide feedback, the agency isn't really obligated to
             | agree with them, merely to acknowledge and respond to them.
             | In this case, the public comments I linked to above
             | explicitly requested more boat launches, other dredging
             | options, etc., and the NPS explained its rationales about
             | why it didn't do those things, why those things are out of
             | scope for its proposed projects, etc.
             | 
             | It's a lot of red tape and bureaucratic language that
             | basically boils down to "Thanks for your comment. We're
             | going to do this anyway." And that, IMO, is a separate
             | failure of the current law: there is not really an avenue
             | for direct democratic participation in these processes. You
             | can scream at them all you want but ultimately it's not
             | your call. And that's how we end up with vigilante
             | fishermen who take matters into their own hands.
             | 
             | NEPA was a groundbreaking law in its day that helped
             | protect a lot of our public lands that otherwise would've
             | been irreparably harmed or destroyed outright. But it's
             | also 50+ years old now and probably in need of some
             | updating and streamlining and more opportunities for public
             | participation. But that's the sort of unsexy infrastructure
             | and resource discussion that most hotshot politicians don't
             | want to focus on, instead arguing about the latest hot-
             | button culture war issues.
             | 
             | Man, I wish people invested as much emotion into these
             | things as, say, bathrooms or movie casting. By and large
             | people just ignore our public lands management until
             | something suddenly changes that they don't like (even
             | though it's often been planned for years if not decades,
             | again, usually completely under the radar just because the
             | governments are so bad at marketing and publicizing).
        
           | anon84873628 wrote:
           | I wonder why they don't have a boat launch directly into the
           | lake.
        
             | solardev wrote:
             | As another poster mentioned
             | (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39341176), there are
             | a couple other boat launches about 20 minutes away, to the
             | north and south of the project site.
             | 
             | In the environmental assessment (https://parkplanning.nps.g
             | ov/showFile.cfm?projectID=60589&MI...), Alternative 3
             | explored the possibility of adding another boat launch and
             | parking area. This is discussed in detail from PDF pages
             | 22-25.
             | 
             | A similar alternative, building a boat launch past the
             | former dredging area, was also considered but dismissed
             | because currents would likely submerge it within a few
             | years. A few other sites were also looked at, but
             | ultimately they went with not building any new ones.
             | 
             | The NPS's subsequent response to public comments (https://p
             | arkplanning.nps.gov/showFile.cfm?projectID=60589&MI...)
             | discusses these further on PDF pages 19-20. My summary of
             | the NPS's response is basically that anglers make up a
             | little less than 1% of area visitation, and their main
             | mandate is preservation of the natural resources.
             | 
             | > Regarding the ecological health of Lake Michigan, the
             | mission of the NPS does include preserving and enhancing
             | ecological health and processes within the National
             | Lakeshore. However, maximizing angler opportunities in an
             | effort to increase state licensing fees is not an
             | efficient, or appropriate, way for the NPS to attempt to
             | achieve this.
             | 
             | They were also asked why they didn't build more parking,
             | grant the land back to the state, allow the state to take
             | over dredging, etc.
             | 
             | It's worth a read if you're interested.
             | 
             | -------------
             | 
             | I don't necessarily agree or disagree with the NPS's
             | stances here, FWIW. Just wanted to show more of the NEPA
             | process (the National Environmental Policy Act, which is
             | what makes the NPS have to go through all these
             | environmental reviews and public comments). These public
             | comments are the official way for members of the public to
             | respond and critique the federal government's (including
             | the NPS's) planned management efforts.
             | 
             | Of course, sometimes that doesn't work out, and, uh,
             | vigilante land managers volunteer their shovels...
        
           | PM_me_your_math wrote:
           | Rivers change their natural state constantly. What the guy or
           | group did shouldn't be criminal insomuch as it only takes one
           | storm to cut a new channel. I take issue with government
           | putting the lives of little birds and mounds of dirt over the
           | lives of its citizens and their livelihoods.
        
             | db48x wrote:
             | Yea, but remember that it is a public park. It's not that
             | guy's property to mess with.
        
             | solardev wrote:
             | IMO a criminal charge does seem a bit heavy-handed for
             | this. They should've just made him shovel it all back, lol;
             | that would've been punishment enough.
        
         | db48x wrote:
         | It's less about the ecology and more about who has the right to
         | make modifications in a public park. Usually, whoever creates
         | the park (whether it's a city, county, township, state, or the
         | federal government) puts someone in charge of the maintenance
         | of the park. Even if they're doing a bad job it's usually
         | considered a bad idea for visitors, even locals as in this
         | case, to take matters into their own hands. Certainly if every
         | visitor started digging things up or cutting down trees then
         | there wouldn't be much left of the park.
        
           | rkagerer wrote:
           | If he owned the property where this was done (or at least as
           | close as you can own to the water mark) would it have made a
           | difference?
        
             | TapWaterBandit wrote:
             | Legally, probably. I don't know the laws around
             | environmental protection in that area so there may still
             | have been a violation but it appears he was convicted here
             | for violation of property rights as this is public land.
             | But this whole situation is more about the property rights
             | and how the lake here will be used for recreation rather
             | than ecological concerns if I'm reading correctly.
        
               | justinjlynn wrote:
               | Boils down to: if they want to make an example out of
               | you, they will find some way to do so.
        
               | topherclay wrote:
               | What do you mean by this? If they just wanted to make an
               | example out of him then he gave them a very easy way to
               | "find" to do so, considering we are observing it via
               | satellite maps.
        
               | ethanbond wrote:
               | Oh you know, the big bad government just going after The
               | Small Guy (oddly the one who openly flaunted laws)
        
             | pkulak wrote:
             | Water gets really complicated, legally, going back to the
             | Romans. Water being on your property doesn't really mean
             | much. Imagine if you were allowed to buy 100 feet next to a
             | river and damn it, for example.
        
               | smnrchrds wrote:
               | > _damn it_
               | 
               | Curses and hexes are not prohibited by the law. If you
               | want to damn a river, damn it. You don't even need to buy
               | the land first.
        
               | pkulak wrote:
               | lol, touche
        
               | advael wrote:
               | This has become my favorite comment on hn
        
               | dylan604 wrote:
               | But it may open you to excommunication from the religious
               | power in your area. Using hexes and curses might get you
               | burned at the stake
        
               | spacecadet wrote:
               | Yeah! curse the water and the locals show up with torches
               | and pitchforks, dont ask how I know...
        
               | AlbertCory wrote:
               | On a related note:
               | 
               | to those who say "it's better to light one candle than to
               | curse the darkness" I say "Damn the darkness!"
        
             | bongodongobob wrote:
             | Nope. Just because you own land doesn't mean you can do
             | whatever you want with it. _Especially_ with wetlands.
             | Ecologically, they are extremely important and usually
             | fragile.
        
             | db48x wrote:
             | I'm no lawyer, but I bet it would at least require a
             | permit. The county would review it, make you do studies to
             | see if it would be bad. It'd take years, and nobody would
             | be able to prove that it would hurt the ecology of the
             | river, or inconvenience any downstream users, so it would
             | be a judgement call. The county would deny your permit
             | application for no good reason, and you'd have to go to
             | court over it. After years of motions, rulings, and
             | appeals, it would end up in the Supreme Court where they
             | would rule that the EPA can't veto this particular project
             | because the river doesn't cross state lines and the EPA was
             | only given permission by Congress to regulate those
             | waterways which are shared between states. It would take
             | another year before the permit was actually approved. After
             | all, what is a government for except to get in a man's way?
        
               | autoexec wrote:
               | Or it'd go the same way it does for just about every
               | person doing something on own their land. It might
               | involve a permit but would most likely would not involve
               | the supreme court and everybody would be just fine as
               | evidenced by the huge number of people who have already
               | built things on their land/water and the vast majority of
               | people would be better off for it and grateful that
               | there's some kind of oversight to make sure that people
               | aren't doing something that will fuck up the things we
               | all use/depend on.
               | 
               | Even if someone is lucky enough to own land with a river
               | running through it I'm pretty glad that _somebody_ will
               | "get in a man's way" if that man decides to do something
               | like dump heavy metals into the river with abandon or dam
               | it up without any consideration for those further
               | downstream. I'm also glad that the somebody doing the job
               | is ultimately working for the public and that voters who
               | can decide to increase/decrease the amount of oversight
               | as needed. The majority of the US population feels that
               | the government isn't doing enough to protect the
               | environment.
        
               | skissane wrote:
               | > I'm no lawyer, but I bet it would at least require a
               | permit
               | 
               | In May last year, SCOTUS significantly narrowed the
               | definition of "waters of the United States" - https://en.
               | m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sackett_v._Environmental_Pro... - so
               | some of these cases which would have required a federal
               | permit (EPA or Army Corps of Engineers) may no longer
               | require one.
               | 
               | Whether a state/county/municipal permit is required is a
               | completely separate question - it is a matter of state
               | and local law, which varies from state to state and
               | locality to locality
        
               | db48x wrote:
               | I was being facetious, of course. Most permit
               | applications do not end up in court cases, let alone in
               | the Supreme Court. But that is the very case I was
               | referring to.
               | 
               | However, that case did not narrow the definition of the
               | phrase "waters of the United States" at all. No, it
               | merely prevented the EPA from widening it over time. Keep
               | in mind that the Sackett's property does not actually
               | contain a wetland or navigable waterway; it just has a
               | ditch that occasionally channels rainwater away from
               | their lawn. This returns us to the definition that the
               | EPA decided on in the 1970s and 1980s.
        
               | skissane wrote:
               | > However, that case did not narrow the definition of the
               | phrase "waters of the United States" at all. No, it
               | merely prevented the EPA from widening it over time.
               | 
               | SpaceX had requested a wetland reclamation permit from
               | USACE for expansion of their launch site in Texas; in
               | 2022 (a year before SCOTUS decided this case) they
               | withdrew the application [0], exactly why is unclear, but
               | it seems they concluded that bureaucratic process was
               | unlikely to produce the result they wanted. Possibly,
               | under this decision, the wetland (tidal flats actually)
               | they wanted to reclaim is no longer "waters of the United
               | States", in which case they might be able to go ahead
               | without the permit. If that's the case, then in practice
               | the definition really has been narrowed
               | 
               | [0] https://www.tpr.org/environment/2022-04-07/army-
               | corps-of-eng...
        
         | defrost wrote:
         | As a general rule human notions of "efficiency" that lead to
         | straightening water channels, draining wetlands, clearing
         | mangroves, replacing river basins with concrete, etc have
         | downsides that can often be severe down the track a few
         | decades.
         | 
         | Every specific case is a bit different, of course.
         | 
         | That said, removing a meander can improve boat navigation, but
         | it reduces total water contact with shore line interface,
         | filtering effect of weeds, opportunities for water way animal
         | breeding locations, increases flow rates, etc.
         | 
         | The downsides can be loss of habitat and species, more polluted
         | water, faster water in flood times leading to stronger gouging
         | effects, banks bursting etc.
         | 
         | Wetland habitats clean and filter water, near the ocean and
         | large lakes they reduce storm surges, etc.
         | 
         | Where rivers drain into oceans or lakes with different water
         | properties (oceans have higher salt levels) banking at the
         | river mouth reduces backwash from the larger body up into the
         | river and preserves the distinct water types which can benefit
         | fish species, water based plants and animals, etc.
         | 
         | It's a swings and roundabouts problem domain.
        
           | bomewish wrote:
           | I love HN.
        
           | dylan604 wrote:
           | I love how LA just paved its river, and then questions why
           | there's so much run off. Like, where did you expect the water
           | to go when you've paved everything?
           | 
           | My city got tired of the river flooding the downtown area, so
           | decided to reroute the river. Of course, they made it much
           | straighter than it would naturally form. So nearly a century
           | later, they started to go back and add in bends and areas for
           | the water to pool in areas. It has done a lot in a positive
           | direction.
        
             | nimbius wrote:
             | the US at the start of the 20th century was sort of a shit-
             | wreck of works projects to impose manifest destiny on
             | whatever part of nature that happened to irk us that day.
             | the LA river is what it is today for the same reason anzo
             | borrego has no more natural water, the salton sea is a
             | boiling chemical pit, and the east coast was a toxic dump
             | up until the nineties with things like the love canal
             | projects.
             | 
             | The river flooded in 1938, tearing out bridges and
             | trestles. It killed more than 100 people, trapped movie
             | stars on their San Fernando Valley ranches, and forced a
             | three-day delay in the Oscars. The water tore away the
             | Warner Brothers studio's prop department.
             | 
             | That flood wrote the real river's death warrant. It was the
             | Depression; L.A. needed jobs, not a killer river. The river
             | was timbered and troughed and cemented over, mile after
             | mile. Only in parts of its 51-mile bed would it assert
             | itself and remain persistently unpaveable: for about three
             | miles around Atwater Village, and along more than two miles
             | at the broad reach of the Sepulveda dam wildlife area.
             | 
             | It took 20 years and 3.5 million barrels of cement, and now
             | we have a paved river as a testament to the hubris of man.
             | fwiw, it did not solve the floods this year.
        
               | bglazer wrote:
               | This is very well written and the last paragraph really
               | drives home what a disaster this is
        
               | card_zero wrote:
               | Seem needlessly harsh to humans, is there some less
               | hubristic animal? The other animals don't even know the
               | word, and they'd pave over rivers too if they even were
               | capable of having bad ideas, I mean it's not like beavers
               | or termites are exercising wise restraint.
        
               | defrost wrote:
               | Beavers are arguably beneficial to the bigger picture in
               | their area, they don't make concreate waterways, they
               | make large shallow lakes with lots of boggy areas.
               | 
               | Hellish for humans to walk about and navigate, sure.
               | 
               | Very good for temperature stabilisations, wetland life,
               | water retention in areas that would otherwise drain and
               | dry out, etc.
        
               | card_zero wrote:
               | Definitely, beavers are excellent, but not on purpose.
               | When we say "human hubris" we're thinking of ourselves as
               | bad for being able to think of things. Bacteria, by
               | comparison, cause less havoc, but that's because their
               | activities are limited by what's evolutionarily adaptive.
               | They caused a mass extinction once, but that was a couple
               | of billion years ago. None of the other creatures are
               | being deliberately _good_. Neither are humans, on the
               | whole, but at least it troubles our minds sometimes.
        
               | xkcd-sucks wrote:
               | Also arguably bad in some places they're edging out the
               | locals (South America) or contributing to greenhouse gas
               | emissions (the warming Arctic), if you believe in
               | "invasive species" (some people don't)
        
               | nerpderp82 wrote:
               | > and they'd pave over rivers too if they even were
               | capable of having bad ideas
               | 
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuous_truth
               | 
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu_quoque
        
               | akira2501 wrote:
               | > to impose manifest destiny on whatever part of nature
               | that happened to irk us that day.
               | 
               | To use available technology and information of the day in
               | an attempt to improve outcomes for millions of people.
               | 
               | > It killed more than 100 people
               | 
               | I guess that doesn't "irk" some people. I suppose they've
               | adopted a mindset that the dead somehow "deserved" it for
               | some imagined choice they made, or that humanity as a
               | whole "deserves" to be doomed.
               | 
               | > as a testament to the hubris of man
               | 
               | Engineering is an act of compromise. One that has mostly
               | worked in our favor. You can either give up because we
               | are incapable of perfection or you can dig in and try to
               | make the next incremental improvement.
               | 
               | https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2024-02-08/live
               | s-s...
        
               | throwaway5959 wrote:
               | Given how much water ended up in the ocean instead of
               | downtown, I think it did a damn good job.
        
               | metabagel wrote:
               | I don't know about Los Angeles, but in Orange County our
               | concrete flood channels occasionally fill up with water.
               | When that happens, I feel like maybe they weren't such a
               | bad solution after all.
               | 
               | They are terrible, but I think the alternative was
               | probably not to build in places like Huntington Beach
               | (population 200,000).
        
             | metabagel wrote:
             | The L.A. River was paved before WW2.
             | 
             | https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-03-01/why-
             | we-t...
             | 
             | For some time now, Los Angeles and Orange County have been
             | in the process of adding soil and plants to the bottoms of
             | the concrete channels.
             | 
             | Here's the website for the L.A. river revitalization.
             | 
             | https://lariver.org/
        
         | NPC82 wrote:
         | If endangered piping plovers of the Great Lakes are similar to
         | the enangered Snowy Plovers in California, the sand build up is
         | pretty important for their nesting. Dredging sand in general is
         | usually pretty bad unless it's part of a project to remove
         | recent mining runoff (these days strictly controlled by the
         | EPA...unless defunded)
         | 
         | https://www.greatlakespipingplover.org/
         | 
         | Disclaimer: I'm just an amateur birder.
        
         | jws wrote:
         | I'm not sure "bad" is required.
         | 
         | As a person responsible for maintaining a harbor in Lake
         | Michigan, I am allowed to move 1 cubic yard of material a year,
         | by hand, with a shovel (last time I checked, the rules change).
         | Anything else requires a detailed permitting process with lots
         | of limitations on what is even possible.
         | 
         | You are looking at a body of rules built up to prevent draining
         | large wetlands without permission, destroying your neighbors
         | waterfront, dredging huge plumes of PCB contaminated sediment
         | into the active water zones, wiping out a regional spawning
         | bed, or casting an intermittent shadow on a patch of lake bed
         | of the great state of _redacted_. This is administered by a
         | staff who will be held accountable for unforeseen damage and
         | has limited resources.
         | 
         | So you do the paperwork, wait for your permits, only work
         | during the weeks of the year when work is allowed, and try to
         | generally make do with less than you wanted.
        
           | roamerz wrote:
           | > As a person responsible for maintaining a harbor in Lake
           | Michigan, I am allowed to move 1 cubic yard of material a
           | year, by hand, with a shovel
           | 
           | looking at the picture he could have made a smaller channel
           | moving the legal limit letting the water enlarge it over
           | time.
        
             | themadturk wrote:
             | Yes, but was the fellow considered a harbor maintainer? I
             | don't know what this constitutes, but there's nothing in
             | the story to indicate he had any such designation.
        
       | andrewflnr wrote:
       | I believe I've found the spot shown in the article:
       | https://maps.app.goo.gl/sSscNRFzYBg9Wmbb7 The satellite view
       | matches the photos.
        
         | p1mrx wrote:
         | Here's a timelapse album:
         | https://ibb.co/album/RTzjwW?sort=name_asc
         | 
         | For some reason historical satellite photos are available in
         | Google Earth Pro (which is free) but not on maps.google.com or
         | earth.google.com
        
           | db48x wrote:
           | Good find. I believe that the "new channel" restored it to
           | something like what it looked like in 2015, if I understand
           | the descriptions correctly.
        
           | zer0x4d wrote:
           | >For some reason
           | 
           | When you're talking about Google products, fragmentation
           | comes built-in as expected. There is no reason for 3 versions
           | of maps to exist within Google ecosystem but I don't think
           | they really care
        
             | infotropy wrote:
             | 4, don't forget Waze
        
           | iggldiggl wrote:
           | And conversely Google Earth Pro can view street view imagery,
           | too, but _only_ the current version - historic street view is
           | only available via Google Maps through the browser.
        
           | troydavis wrote:
           | Some of this may be Google shipping its executive incentives
           | (as in "Don't ship the org chart").
           | 
           | Another example: Google Street View is available on the web -
           | unless you use an iPhone and enter the address directly on
           | maps.google.com instead of google.com. On the maps hostname
           | with an iPhone, clicking the Street View preview just shows a
           | nag screen that it's only available in the Google Maps app.
           | That's not true, so I assume that app installs is some
           | group's KPI.
        
       | karmicthreat wrote:
       | There were other boat launches in Frankfort and Empire they could
       | have used, maybe 20 minutes away. That river is not very
       | traversable as it has a weir on it.
        
         | lainga wrote:
         | "The Park Service no longer dredges the Platte River. As a
         | result, sediment and sand build up, reducing the ability to get
         | boats to Lake Michigan."
         | 
         | I didn't get whether this was before or after the channel was
         | dug, and whether there was any causation
        
       | glitchc wrote:
       | They should have just added wheels to the boat [1].
       | 
       | [1] https://www.instructables.com/Portage-cart-for-canoes-and-
       | ka...
        
       | dusted wrote:
       | come on, any change in the environment that can happen by one guy
       | with a shovel over a few days, could happen by any random weather
       | event anyway, that could have happened by the wind blowing just
       | the right way..
        
         | db48x wrote:
         | Agreed, but remember that we're talking about a public park.
         | It's not that one guy's personal property.
        
         | alphabettsy wrote:
         | Does that mean I should be allowed to cut all the trees I don't
         | like down in my local park?
        
       | BXLE_1-1-BitIs1 wrote:
       | I did a lot of canoeing on the Lk Superior north east coast.
       | Where rivers discharge, and there's sand the lake pushes up the
       | sand against the river discharge and it's common for the outlet
       | to be considerably displaced along the shore.
       | 
       | Michipicoten beach is a high long sand bar with a strong flow
       | where the river enters the lake. It's a neat surfing spot in a
       | canoe or kayak.
        
       | binary132 wrote:
       | This seems like something my 8y/o son would do.
        
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