U.S. EPA and Michigan have announced a $2.1 million restoration effort for the shoreline of White Lake, near Muskegon. The White Lake project will restore fish and wildlife habitat at seven public and private sites along the lakeshore.  Field work for the project is now under way and will be completed in 2012.  The work will be performed by local firms.

The project, funded under the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI), will ultimately result in the lake being taken off a binational list of U.S.-Canada “Areas of Concern” or AOCs.  “We’re looking for other partners to identify matching funds so we can accelerate cleanups in other AOCs in Michigan and around the basin, ” said Cameron Davis, Senior Advisor to the EPA Administrator.

The GLRI habitat grant will be used to restore 5,158 feet of shoreline, to create 35 acres of wetland and aquatic habitat, to reconnect and restore 8 acres of riparian and upland habitat corridors, and to remove 27,134 cubic yards of shoreline debris.  White Lake flows into Lake Michigan via the White River.