Healing the land: Using trees to combat toxic sands
Sand Point is located just 4 miles south of the location where Mass Mill once processed billions of pounds of copper ore. Even though the mill has not been operational for decades, its stamp sand byproducts are to this day still washing up on the shores of Lake Superior, including at Sand Point.
Imagine walking along the shoreline of Lake Superior, taking in the splendid view of the water and blue skies while casually skimming your feet along the gravelly earth. You look ahead, admiring the expansive view—nothing but a beachfront of sandy crushed rock with the consistency of kitty litter.
Now imagine you’re informed that this benign-looking landscape beneath your feet is in fact laced with unsafe levels of copper, lead, and other heavy metals.
Sadly, this is no hypothetical to the human population that regularly walks those beaches. A result of extensive copper mining in the early 20th century, over six billion pounds of stamp sands deposited into Lake Superior and a portion now resides on the shorelines of Sand Point, a place held sacred by the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC), a federally recognized Ojibwa Tribe located along Lake Superior in present-day Baraga County, Michigan.
“Sand Point is a place of life. It is a place of biodiversity. It is a place to protect and assist all living things,” says Austin Ayers, Tribal Council Treasurer and an outreach coordinator for the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community.
The stamp sands, however, have been a source of significant threat to the sacred land and its inhabitants. The copper mining contamination has negatively impacted the ecosystem, adversely affecting wildlife and water quality.
“The Tribe is connected to this place. They are tied as a people to the water and to the land,” explains wildlife and habitat manager Erin Johnston. “This community is not going to abandon this location, so it is so important that the environment becomes healthy once again so that our other planet beings—our fish, our birds—can be healthy. This in turn will make our community healthy.”
The tribal community has been exploring and experimenting with possible solutions to the massive pollution problem, but with an ecological problem this large, going alone is unrealistic.
While removing the pollutants from the stamp sands by hand is not feasible, what if trees could do it? This is where Forest Service Research and Development enters the picture.
Through the process of phyto-recurrent selection, researchers have identified varieties of fast-growing poplar and willow trees that should thrive on the shoreline. As the trees are planted, scientists will conduct long-term monitoring to evaluate their effectiveness. Pictured here, Forest Service plant geneticist Ron Zalesny holds a handful of tree plantings, explaining the process of planting to wildlife and habitat manager Erin Johnston.
With their complex root structures and natural ability to absorb and break down pollutants, trees and plants can actually act as a living filter. Ron Zalesny, a research plant geneticist with the Northern Research Station of the Forest Service, and his team have been championing this concept, called phytoremediation.
The process of phytoremediation is a bit complicated—Zalesny and his team cannot plant just any tree variety into the ground and expect it to magically clean the soil. Rather, a careful selection process is employed, known to researchers as phyto-recurrent selection. The process involves identifying tree varieties that are naturally tolerant to heavy metals and can absorb and, in some cases, break down the toxins.
With funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law supporting the project, participants are hopeful that Sand Point’s ecological future is brighter through the harnessing of nature’s power to detoxify the landscape.
“Given the history of what happened here—the wrong that was inflicted on the land—it means a lot to have the Forest Service step forward and be willing to work with us,” says Ayers. “We wouldn’t have the capacity to manage such a huge project on our own.”
For Zalesny, this partnership is immensely rewarding. “Seeing phyto-recurrent selection being utilized for phytoremediation of these afflicted lands is a highpoint of my career,” reflects Zalesny. “This isn’t a project that Forest Service Research and Development could do on its own.” Working with the Tribe to understand the importance of this land, selecting appropriate trees, and then implementing phytoremediation strategies is a joint effort, Zalesny says.
“The Ojibwa people speak of the concept of the seventh generation,” observes Johnston. “The idea is that we look to our previous generations for hope and guidance, and in turn we look seven generations toward the future to imagine the place that we want to leave for our children.”