The DEQ said Monday that laws making it easier for beachfront property owners to clear away weeds and aquatic plants from their beaches should be scrapped.

According to this story in the Duluth News Tribune, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality says that uprooting water plants along shorelines removes needed habitat for young game fish and also reduces the populations of invertebrates they feed on.

A state law passed in 2003 exempted beach grooming activities from wetland protection laws. The exemptions were sought especially by the owners of beachfront properties where falling water levels in the Great Lakes had exposed expanses of bottom lands formerly under water.