To date, the focus regarding the shoreline erosion along the Lake Michigan coast has been on protecting homes and properties. But there’s another factor looming large a few months from now: tourism. The beach at Rocky Gap County Park is completely gone, Silver Beach County Park has lost a massive amount of frontage, as have Tiscornia Park in the city of St. Joseph and Jean Klock Park in Benton Harbor. We asked Berrien County Parks Director Brian Bailey what the plans are for the summer at Silver Beach, and he’s trying to stay optimistic.
“We’ll probably lose some of the lower volleyball courts, move back our lifeguard towers,” says Bailey. “But people will still come to the beaches. A lot of people even come to the beaches and don’t even go swimming. Just so long as they access the beach and remember all the other parks and amenities Berrien County has to offer, I think it’ll be a good summer.”
Bailey notes the last time Lake Michigan was this high in the mid-1980s, Silver Beach County Park did not exist, as the county obtained the property at the end of 1990. As for the exposed metal at Rocky Gap, he says that dates to the 1960s.
“There’s a lot of material that’s exposed now that wasn’t in previous years,” says Bailey. “With both beaches that we’re in control of, Rocky Gap and Silver Beach, kind of a wait-and-see right now until spring to see how much damage Mother Nature creates for those properties.”
He says what’s been uncovered by the erosion at the south end of Silver Beach is from the efforts to stop the erosion 30-plus years ago. Bailey adds there’s really nothing the county can do at this point to replenish what’s been lost. Berrien County Commissioner Ezra Scott is pushing for state and federal disaster declarations to help property owners and local governments recover, and is now waiting on the state Legislature to resume work this month.
