Residents in northern Michigan are voicing concerns over a dam deconstruction plan they fear could hurt area fisheries.
The Record-Eagle reports that audience members spoke Tuesday at a public hearing in the Boardman River Nature Center, near the Sabin Dam that Grand Traverse County and a group of governmental, nonprofit and other project partners plan to remove.
Project partners say the dam demolition would be the final removal project of a years-long initiative to restore the Boardman River to a more natural state, open fish passage and improve water quality.
But most residents who spoke Tuesday worried removing the dam would open the trout stream's watershed to a predatory migrating fish invasion or parasitic sea lampreys.
Dam removal is expected to begin as early as May 2018.
