I’m sure we can all remember the high water woe’s that beset the country this spring, and plague some areas still-Michigan was not immune, and in Northwest Michigan, Grand Traverse county and Leelanau County had their problems as well. But closer to home, Little Traverse Lake in Cleveland Township was unable to mitigate this high water occurrence in a timely manner, leading to compromised septic systems, flooded crawl spaces, exterior water damage (leading to mold), and considerable shoreline erosion.
The Cleveland Township Board was once again asked to take a role in solving Little Traverse Lake’s inability to mitigate high water levels during high water occurrences. And as in 2015, Cleveland Township contracted, at considerable expense, with the engineering firm of Gosling Cuzbak of Traverse City to do a study on how best to mitigate high water in a timely fashion during high water occurrences.
And guess what!! The 2026 study came back pointing to the same issues that the 2015 study did- “any drainage improvements made at the West Traverse Lake Road crossing of Shalda Creek are highly contingent on no downstream impediments (i.e. beaver dams) in Shalda Creek leading out of Little Traverse Lake.
