STEVENSVILLE, MI — Cody Krieger said he has been coming to the Lake Michigan shoreline for years. Like many in Southwest Michigan, he goes to his favorite spots along the water’s edge to take in the views as the waves crash down on the shore.

But when he visited some of his favorite spots this year, he noticed some big changes tied to erosion impacting property along the big lake.

He’s not alone.

With high water levels observed this year, Lake Michigan is impacting properties. Residents up and down the shore are noticing impacts from falling trees and staircases, and to other structures that have to be moved or face falling over a cliff.

Krieger, a video editor who said he has worked on television shows including Catfish, began filming videos with his drone to document the impacts of high water on Lake Michigan. He saw devastation along the high bluffs, where some property owners have had homes for decades, and where the Lake Michigan shoreline seems to creep ever forward through their backyards and beaches, swallowing valuable land.

“I’ve seen staircases broken in half, boat houses nearing the edge of the water,” he said.

The most devastation is on the high cliffs overlooking the lake, he said, where he has seen homes that have been there for decades that are being taken down. Residents have pointed out where beaches are shrinking, he said.

“It’s dramatic,” he said.

Homeowners are split into a few different categories, he said: Those who attempt to save their homes at a great expense, and others who are paying to have them demolished instead.

One home, just over the Indiana-Michigan border in the Michigan village of Michana, is one that appears to stick out into the water.

The house is surrounded by boulders that extend the property out into Lake Michigan. Waves can be seen lapping at the rocks around the home sitting on its own minor peninsula, as other neighboring lots with beachfront views are pushed inland. The property was sold in recent years and then the home was built and rocks were placed there in a protective barrier around the home, Village President Tim Iverson said.

Neighbors are using boulders on their lots, too, and they are being placed at properties up and down the lake shore.

44 Lake Michigan erosion in Southwest Michigan

As erosion accelerated, other property owners in the South Haven area were seen using boulders to try to slow the stepped-up pace of shoreline erosion seen in the past year.

The number of permits issued for work on properties along the lake shore has increased in recent months, Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy Media Relations and Public Information Officer Nick Assendelft said on Jan. 31.

EGLE is approving the permits faster than usual he said, decreasing the usual turnaround of 30 to 60 days, down to a day or two.

Still, he urges anyone with a property near the shore to get a permit sooner rather than later, he said, and acting to prepare paperwork now could save time later if the situation becomes critical. An estimate shows the lake levels will be higher next spring, he said.

The number of permit applications for work along the Lake Michigan shoreline has trended up over the past five fiscal years, according to numbers Assendelft provided, from 264 in the 2014 fiscal year, to 836 in the 2019 fiscal year.

For just the first quarter of the state’s fiscal year — from Oct. 1, 2019, to Jan. 1, 2020 — EGLE has received 452 permit applications for work along the Great Lakes shorelines all around Michigan. That is more than half the total permit applications EGLE received for the full 2019 fiscal year, he said.

In the first quarter of the 2020 fiscal year, plus an additional three weeks into January, 571 permit applications were received, he said. Of those, 315 are for work along Lake Michigan in the Lower Peninsula.

Krieger said he has seen other places with drastic changes in the area of South Haven and at parks in Berrrien County, including Silver Beach. He is working to document impacts to properties and would like to produce a video that shows some of the struggles.

He photographed changes as Dune Lane, a road leading to a dead end in a residential area overlooking the water, fell piece by piece over the cliff above the lake. He said he plans to watch as the erosion continues.

His drone is not the only eye in the sky trained on the shoreline.

Eighteen counties along a lakeshore have requested aviation and mapping support from the Michigan State Police including St. Clair, Wayne, Tuscola, Huron, Alcona, Arenac, Saginaw, Bay, Berrien, Van Buren, Lake, Mason, Ottawa, Muskegon, Oceana, Manistee, Leelanau, and Iosco, according to Emergency Management and Homeland Security Public Information Officer Dale R. George.

Michigan State Police has flown a helicopter, recording video of the Lake Michigan shoreline, in November and December, he said.

MLive has covered the impacts wreaking havoc up and down the shores of Lake Michigan.

One home has fallen into the lake, and another near South Haven was torn down before it went over the edge of a bluff. Another homeowner was in the process of breaking their home into pieces and moving it offsite, according to Allegan County officials.

More on MLive:

Home on edge of Lake Michigan bluff demolished to avoid collapse

Move houses near Lake Michigan bluffs or lose them, experts warn

Cleanup completed on collapsed Lake Michigan cottage before big storm hits