Shoreline restoration project underway near Buckhorn Island State Park

Story and Pictures by Alice Gerard

A shoreline protection program is currently underway in the West River near Buckhorn Island State Park. Dan Dinsmore, field superintendent for LDC Construction, said the Grand Island company, owned by Lyle Dinsmore, is doing the project for the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

According to Tom Burke, a member of the Grand Island Conservation Advisory Board, “Through the years, LDC has become one of the leading habitat restoration companies in the Great Lakes, if not the leading habitat restoration firms in the Great Lakes basin.”

Among the projects LDC Construction has worked on is the restoration of Strawberry Island, as well as Motor Island. They also did restoration work on the lagoon at Beaver Island State Park, Burke said.

Dinsmore described the current project as a “habitat project.” He said that hemlock logs were trucked in from Penn Yan. These trees are considered to be “more resistant to weather.” The wood is being used to build large “planter boxes,” he said. “They get staged in the water, and there are plants that will be planted within them.” The plants will be surrounded by “walls.”

“It protects the plants,” Dinsmore said. “When we had this surveyed for where everything goes in here, we found there are certain spots that are protected. We will have these (spots) marked out. We can’t encroach in these areas.”

Dinsmore explained that the large planter boxes will be permanent fixtures in the river, as they will use “helical anchors, which are screwed into the bottom of the river.” The large planter boxes will be “cabled into place,” he explained.

Employees of LDC Construction work on building the giant “planter boxes.”

The logs are being fashioned into large planter boxes, which will be placed in the river and held in place with helical anchors that are screwed into the bottom of the river.