The Lake Lanier Association is working to keep several islands in the lake from disappearing-and is getting some help from local governments.
Executive director of the nonprofit Joanna Cloud told the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners during a recent work session that one project in Forsyth County placing riprap at the shoreline of an island to stem erosion has already wrapped and four more were set on other islands in the lake-mainly in Hall County. She said the first of that group is close to a finish. Those four expected to be done by March of 2017 at a cost of approximately $437,000.. Hall and Gwinnett counties are kicking in toward the cost of the product using local tax money, as is a local philanthropic foundation.
Riprap is a combination of rock material and sometimes concrete rubble placed on shorelines to fight erosion. Cloud said disappearing shores on the lake’s islands pose a shallow-water boating hazard. In addition she says, soil washing into the reservoir reduces its storage capacity. Cloud said over the years some islands on the lake have entirely eroded away.
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