The Yellow Dog Plains is an area north and west of
Marquette, Michigan, in the
Upper Peninsula of Michigan,
United States. The
Yellow Dog River
The Yellow Dog River flows through Marquette County in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is in length,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed January 3, 201 ...
flows through it, as does the
Salmon Trout River. The Salmon Trout River is unique in that it has a breeding population of coasters, a
potamodromous form of
brook trout
The brook trout (''Salvelinus fontinalis'') is a species of freshwater fish in the char genus ''Salvelinus'' of the salmon family Salmonidae. It is native to Eastern North America in the United States and Canada, but has been introduced elsewhere ...
. Coasters are virtually extinct from their native range on the south coast of
Lake Superior, except for the Salmon Trout River. The Yellow Dog Plains is a remote and virtually untouched wilderness, aside from large scale logging operations. There are extensive forests of
Eastern white pine
''Pinus strobus'', commonly called the eastern white pine, northern white pine, white pine, Weymouth pine (British), and soft pine is a large pine native to eastern North America. It occurs from Newfoundland, Canada west through the Great Lakes ...
, with reports of some of the trees in the Yellow Dog Plains reaching heights of 31 meters.
[Barnes, Burton V., & Wagner, Warren H., Jr. (2004)]
''Michigan Trees: A Guide to the Trees of the Great Lakes Region''
p. 86. The University of Michigan Press.
Kennecott Minerals Corporation, a subsidiary of
Rio Tinto, is currently considering opening a
nickel-
copper mine in the Yellow Dog Plains. The plan, called the
Eagle Project
The Eagle Project () was a joint operation during World War II between the Office of Strategic Services of the United States and the Korean Liberation Army of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea. It is also called Project Ea ...
by Kennecott, has garnered both local support and opposition. Proponents claim that the mine would produce jobs, while the opposition claims the mine would produce irreversible environmental damage.
References
External links
Information about opposition to the Kennecott Eagle ProjectThe Eagle Project WebsiteSave the Wild UP
Geography of Marquette County, Michigan
{{MarquetteCountyMI-geo-stub