A 63-year-old man in Frankfort, Michigan, has been convicted of two federal misdemeanor charges of tampering and vandalism after it was found that he had diverted a river within a national park by digging a new channel into Lake Michigan.
U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan, Mark Totten, said in a press release that Andrew Howard dug the channel that diverted the Platte River in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Park into Lake Michigan after a disagreement with authorities.
“The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is a Michigan jewel,” said U.S. Attorney Totten. “Every year, countless visitors enjoy its pristine waters, towering sand dunes, and rolling forests. Mr. Howard had a policy dispute with the National Park Service and took matters into his own hands, breaking the law rather than using lawful means to advocate for his position.”
‘Significant Ecological Harm’
Mr. Totten said Mr. Howard’s offense led to “significant financial and ecological harm and altered the landscape” of the park.The river, Mr. Totten said, attracts summer recreational activities such as tubing, canoeing, kayaking, and beachgoers.
“In August 2022, National Park Service law enforcement officers investigated reports of a diversion of the Platte River near its mouth,” Mr. Totten said. “On August 15, 2022, Howard used a shovel to dig sediment and rocks from the river basin and stacked large rocks on a dam to divert the river’s natural water flow toward a newly created channel out to Lake Michigan, contrary to a decision by the National Park Service to let the river follow its natural course.”
Mr. Howard’s unauthorized dam allowed for boats to come into the Platte Bay, as well as more water flow that spread the new channel to a width of 200 feet, he said.
Aerial photos show the impact of the dug channel. In May 2022, the Platte River ran along the bank of Lake Michigan.
A photo from August 2022 shows the channel emptying into Lake Michigan three days after Mr. Howard dug the channel into the sand.
Local Controversy Over River Access
There’s been controversy over whether the Platte River should have been dredged, according to a 2022 report from local media.Anna Grobe, the Lake Township supervisor, told the reporter that there’s been a call for the river to be dredged for safety access.
“Whether it be a canoer, a kayaker, a child out at float, or a fisherman—if an emergency vessel would have needed to get out, they would not have been able to get out of the mouth of the Platte River; they would have had to come from Frankfort,” said Ms. Grobe, who added that there were two deaths on the water.
“Time is of the essence, and my concern is it would have been a recovery, not a rescue,” she said.
The National Park Service told local media that the decision not to dredge the river was based on a 2017 planning session.
“By not dredging the mouth of the Platte, it lets nature be nature, and so it allows the mouth of the Platte to meander as it has historically for thousands of years,” said Scott Tucker, the superintendent of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore park.
‘Proper Channels’
Ms. Grobe later said she didn’t know who dug the new channel but wished the culprit had followed the law instead of taking matters into his or her own hands.“If it was going to happen, I wish it would have happened through proper channels,” she said. “But, it is what it is, and frustrations mounted, and somebody just took it upon themselves.”
