Fishing Pier At Grassy Point Caps Off Restoration Project

DULUTH, Minn. — The slow, stead effort to clean up portions of the St. Louis River had an important milestone Monday.

Fans of the beautiful river gathered at Grassy Point near Kingsbury Bay. They were capping off the largest aquatic habitat restoration project ever in the state of Minnesota.

There was 230 acres of rivers and coastal wetlands that were improved. Wood scraps up to 16 feet deep that were left from long-ago lumber mills were removed.

Up river, built sediment was also removed and used to rebuild islands.

Monday a red ribbon and scissors marked the opening of a new fishing pier 108 feet long.

The goal is to bring the area back to the way mother nature intended.

“This project is really important because it is part of the St. Louis River area of concern. So the St. Louis River here between Duluth and Superior was designated as an area of concern, which means it has contamination and degraded habitat. Both these projects were selected to restore that degraded habitat. And move our area of concern close to delisting. These are areas where the habitat has been degraded for both fish and wildlife. So we are doing these projects to help improve that,” said MN DNR Project Supervisor, Melissa Sjolund.

The bottom of the river was dredged at a variety of different levels to help with the growth of different types of vegetation and species of fish.