A campaign to protect a crucial Lake Superior fish spawning area gets underway this week.
A public meeting on Buffalo Reef is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday at Lake Linden-Hubbell High School in Houghton County.
Waste material known as "stamp sands" were dumped into the lake during the copper mining boom of the early 1900s.
The coarse, black sands have drifted toward the reef and threaten to smother it.
Nearly one-quarter of the annual lake trout yield from Lake Superior's Michigan waters comes from within 50 miles of Buffalo Reef.
Dredging planned for May would remove more than 200,000 cubic yards of sands from the lake.
That would protect the reef for about seven years.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency established a task force to seek a long-term solution.
