Mount Baldy

A few weeks ago we discussed in class the preservation of national parks and it got me thinking about Mount Baldy, a sand dune that graces the southeast shore of Lake Michigan. As a kid, I remember the grueling hike up the south side of the dune, huffing and puffing the whole way, my arms loaded with beach towels and sand buckets. The hike, however, was well worth it once you reached the top and could peer out over the lake and, on a clear day, could see the Chicago skyline lurking out across the waters. This landmark, almost exclusively used for recreational purposes (except when our swim team traveled there for conditioning - alternately running sprints on the giant mound of sand and swimming to the buoys and back - in which case the word torture comes to mind), is part of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. It's free to visit and open year-round, factors that have likely led to its deterioration.

Foot traffic on the dune has been rerouted to limit the movement of the sand, which has begun moving inland quite rapidly. Due to beach erosion, the dune is shrinking every year, the water taking more sand away. Efforts to restock Mount Baldy have slowed the process a bit; it's been fed several times in the past three or four decades with tons of sand being hauled in and dumped to prevent erosion.

The effects of Mount Baldy shrinking are not just environmental, they are economical. Our town, and those scattered along the eastern shore of the lake in Michigan, thrive in the summer on tourism. What happens when our most popular landmark is no longer viable as a tourist attraction? No doubt our town will suffer the consequences. Who, or what, is to blame here? Yes, our human footprints have literally changed the landscape. But Mount Baldy was incorporated into the national parks system to expose its beauty to our region, so at what point must we eliminate human traffic to preserve its beauty and prevent its extinction?