Sand Island

Years of work came to fruition last week as sand that was dredged from the Lake Arcadia channel, was deposited in front of Camp Arcadia’s swimming area.  The pumped sand, around 5,000 yards, created an island just south of the Minnehaha and continued down toward the public beach.  Waves will dissipate the island and it will nourish our beach throughout the summer.  Each year the channel fills up with sand and needs to be dredged so boats can safely use the channel.  Normally the dredged sand is either pumped out into the lake or deposited just north of the channel.  By having it pumped down near Camp Arcadia’s beaches it will hopefully affect the size of our beaches this summer.  Receiving the dredging spoils is just one prong of Camp’s beach erosion plan.  The other one is to find a beach erosion system that retains sand.  We are still waiting for approval from the State of Michigan on a free trial system called Sandgrabber.  This system, consisting of plastic blocks with holes in them, will be placed in a few feet of water in front of the tennis courts.  This system, once installed, will be monitored for three years to see if it is successful.