City leaders may urge progress on marine sanctuary
SHEBOYGAN - More than 160 feet of water covers the wreck of the Walter B. Allen off Sheboygan County’s coast.
The 136-foot wooden schooner sank in 1880 after a gale whipped water over its deck as it tried sailing to Manitowoc. A tug boat managed to save the crew, but it couldn’t salvage the two-master, which sank off the coast of Haven.
“Because the Walter B. Allen sank slowly, there are few schooners on the bottom of the Great Lakes more intact than this one,” says WisonsinShipwrecks.org, a website dedicated to teaching about the state’s wrecked vessels. “The two masts are still standing and rise to within 90 feet of the surface.”
The Walter B. Allen is among an estimated 37 known Lake Michigan shipwrecks off Wisconsin’s coast that the federal government has targeted for stricter protection.
RELATED: City one step closer to 'Marine Sanctuary'
Efforts to designate a portion of the lake running from Manitowoc to Ozaukee counties — and including almost all the waters off Sheboygan County’s coastline — a “National Marine Sanctuary” have already been underway for more than a year. But those efforts could get another nudge Monday night, when Sheboygan’s Common Council members plan to take up a resolution petitioning state leaders to support the move.
“Wisconsin’s Great Lakes contain some of the nation’s most important natural, cultural, and recreational resources,” says a draft of the city resolution, which concludes by urging the governor and state lawmakers to support the designation.
Gov. Scott Walker helped prompt the initiative in 2014, when he nominated part of Lake Michigan for the protective designation. The process has moved forward since then: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced plans in 2015 to pursue the Lake Michigan sanctuary designation. And officials are now scheduling a series of local public meetings on the matter, including a March 15 session in Sheboygan.
NOAA’s current plans would cover more than 1,000 square miles of Lake Michigan — extending out as far as 16 miles from the coastline — and putting the area’s underwater resources and artifacts under stricter protections.
Harbors and marinas in several cities along the lake, including Sheboygan and Manitowoc, wouldn't be part of the sanctuary, the administration has said.
Central to the move is an effort to preserve underwater ships and vessels. Some are protected by their inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, and the state also has rules protecting shipwrecks in its waters. The sanctuary designation, according to NOAA, would strengthen regulations aimed at preserving them.
“The sanctuary would bring more resources to the area to help protect these special places, but also have positive impacts on education, economic development, heritage tourism,” Russ Green, the NOAA official who’s been charged with helping spearhead the local sanctuary designation effort, said on Thursday.
If all goes smoothly, Green said, the administration could finalize its sanctuary declaration later this year.
Among the proposed regulations in the sanctuary area would be rules prohibiting using grappling hooks and anchors over shipwreck sites. The oceanic administration says it would prepare maps showing known and suspected shipwreck sites so people would know where the anchor regulations would take effect.
"I guess one of the major impetuses for the sanctuary being in this location was the sheer amount of intact shipwrecks that are in the area, but also the amount of national significance that these shipwrecks have," said Caitlin Zant, a maritime archaeologist with the Wisconsin Historical Society.
Sheboygan's public meeting on the sanctuary designation is scheduled for 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. March 15 inside UW-Sheboygan's Wombat Room. The oceanic administration is also taking public comment on the matter through March 31. For details about how to leave a comment, visit sanctuaries.noaa.gov/wisconsin.
Previous comments the national oceanic administration has already received have been "overwhelmingly supportive" of the sanctuary designation, the administration has said. Some comments, though, have expressed concern the designation could impact lake commerce or dredging efforts.
"The few comments in opposition to sanctuary designation were concerned about the cost of implementation, the possibility that designation would make metal detecting illegal, and that designation would be an unneeded level of government intervention," the administration has noted in its formal proposal to establish the sanctuary.
Green said officials working on the designation effort have already been in talks with commercial shipping companies and others to mitigate potential problems if a sanctuary is declared.
Reach McLean Bennett at 920-453-5133, mbennett2@gannett.com or @Bennett_McLean on Twitter.
IF YOU GO:
What: Public meeting on Marine Sanctuary designation
When: 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on March 15.
Where: UW-Sheboygan's Wombat Room, 1 University Drive, Sheboygan.