Red highlighted areas on this map indicate Michigan townships that contain critical dunes. Image: Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy
Michigan’s towering freshwater sand dunes make up a one-of-a-kind natural resource and the largest collection of freshwater dunes on the planet.
But environmentalists say the state’s legal protections are vague and leave the beloved dunes—and homes nestled among them—vulnerable to shortsighted development.
A pair of West Michigan lawmakers seek to solve these problems with planned legislation to protect the state’s most sensitive dunes. The bills apply to areas that the Legislature designated as “critical dunes” in 1989.
“They found that certain dunes were a unique, irreplaceable and fragile resource that provides significant recreational, economic, scientific, geological, scenic, botanical, educational, agricultural and ecological benefits,” said Emily Smith, land and water conservation policy manager at the Michigan Environmental Council.
Nearly one-third of Michigan’s dunes are classified as critical. They’re predominantly found on the Lake Michigan shoreline of the Lower Peninsula, Smith said.
State law previously granted local governments greater authority over who could build on sand dunes in their communities. In 2012 the Legislature made amendments that gave that authority to the state. The changes made it easier for private developers to receive state permits to build in ways that permanently change the dunes, according to Smith.
Democratic Reps. Rachel Hood of Grand Rapids and Joey Andrews of St. Joseph worked together to develop the new bills, which they said they’ll introduce soon.
“We’re trying to restore the laws so neighbors can be supportive of each other, avoid practices that are harmful to the ecosystem as a whole and avoid practices that might hurt your neighbors down the road,” Hood said.
Andrews’ bill clarifies what counts as sand mining under state law. It would add tougher permit requirements for developers that want to extract sand, protecting more of Michigan’s dunes, Smith said.
Hood said her bill would require housing developers to prove to the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy that their construction plans won’t significantly damage the environment and dunes.
Hood said she decided to work on the issue because of public safety issues she saw occurring up and down the Lake Michigan shoreline.
When coastal property owners install hard structures along the lakeshore, it can force the water elsewhere, damaging someone else’s property. That can be dangerous for homeowners, Hood said.
“One property owner may spend hundreds of thousands, even millions, of dollars protecting their property and hardening their shoreline, but then water moves next door and erodes the property next door,” she said.
Building near dunes is also risky since they are constantly changing shape, Smith said.
“We’re seeing a lot of homes or community buildings dealing with the constant effects of sand, whether that’s removing sand every year that’s encroaching on the structures, or damage from wind, or bringing in sand,” she said.
One extreme example was the 80-foot-tall sand dune that gradually shifted eastward and absorbed a Mears, Michigan, cottage in 2017.
The legislation will likely see pushback from housing developers, since the major supporters of the 2012 amendments included the Michigan Association of Realtors and the Michigan Association of Home Builders. But Smith says rather than being anti-development, the new bills will bring clarity back to where development can and should happen.
Protecting the dunes is important to Michigan residents, says Robert Richardson, a Michigan State University professor who has studied people’s public perceptions and knowledge of Great Lakes coastal dunes.
In one study, conducted with the Michigan Environmental Council, Richardson asked more than 3,000 people to share their thoughts about the dunes. Support for the dunes was overwhelming, with 93% of those surveyed reporting that it was very important or extremely important to protect the dunes for future generations to enjoy.
Hundreds of people surveyed included open-ended comments asking that officials take better care of the dunes, Richardson said. “They wanted to express how much they cared about them.”