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The protection plan put into place last spring to slow and reverse the affects of years of foot traffic on Mount Baldy seems to be working. The Dunes Resource Management department says prevailing winds and weather naturally move and shift the sands of Mount Baldy, but trampling feet speeds up the affect at an "alarming rate." The department credits a public education campaign in combination with a fenced zone at the base of the dune that has shown "substantial recovery." They said visitors should expect to see the protection plan continue and expanded to other dune areas in the park suffering from heavy visitor use.  According to the Indiana Dunes National Lake Shore web site, trampling of feet is nothing new to Mt. Baldy as then National Parks Director, Stephen Mather, who was instrumental in holding hearings in Chicago on a "Sand Dunes National Park," is seen below traversing the dune in 1916.



 (Courtesy of the Indiana Dunes Nat'l Lakeshore)