5 days ago
‘The sand had moved on': Sleeping Bear Dunes platform removed
The platform off the Lake Michigan Overlook, also called the Number 9 Overlook, along the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. (Photo: Ed Ronco/IPR News)
This coverage is made possible through a partnership between IPR and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.
The Sleeping Bear Dunes have been active systems for millennia, shifting with the weather or fixed by vegetation. But changes can seem sudden, especially when measured against human infrastructure.
That was the case with a popular wooden viewing platform at the Lake Michigan Overlook's stop #9 along Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
The platform rested on the dune some 450 feet above the lake. When National Park Service staff arrived at the site this spring, they found some of its pilings were no longer touching the ground. Winter storms, wind and rain had eroded the sand underneath.
'The western portion of that overlook was freestanding. It was free-hanging. The sand had moved on,' said Scott Tucker, superintendent of Sleeping Bear Dunes.
Tucker estimated roughly half a million people visited the stop every year. Some would venture out onto the platform.
Now, it's gone.
Staff dismantled it earlier this month because it wasn't safe.
As the glaciers retreated at the end of the Ice Age, they shaped this area's geography. Wind and water have changed the lakeshore and the dunes along it for millennia. But human-caused climate change is also influencing erosion in the Great Lakes. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, for instance, warming temperatures contribute to lower ice cover and water levels, which in turn can make coastlines vulnerable to erosion and flooding.
Underneath the park's Facebook post announcing the news, people reacted with stories and memories of past visits, from engagements to shared moments with loved ones who have passed away.
The platform was installed in 1986, further back from the edge of the dune and firmly anchored in the ground.
But in the nearly four decades since, the dune has retreated. Tucker said in a given year, the dune face moves about 1 to 3 feet east, away from the lake.
These dunes move with the prevailing winds. In this case, the sand is being blown from the overlook and deposited across the Sleeping Bear Plateau, said Tom Ulrich, a former deputy superintendent of the park who retired about a year and a half ago.
'The dunes are inexorable,' Ulrich said. 'They will move, and you cannot stop them from moving, and you're foolish if you think you can.'
It's been a chaotic time for national parks. The Trump administration froze federal hiring earlier this year before lifting it for the National Park Service in March. Many federal employees have lost their jobs, left, or been caught in a state of limbo since January. And the proposed federal budget, which narrowly passed the House, would mean major cuts to the agency.
Sleeping Bear Dunes has around two-thirds of the staff typically there this time of year, according to the Glen Arbor Sun and WLUC-TV.
Tucker, the superintendent, didn't elaborate. 'It's a very complex system right now, and I'm really focused on opening up the lakeshore for the summer,' he said.
As for the future of the overlook, he said, in 2028 the park will look at planning and design for that location as part of a five-year recreation fee plan.
The Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive was the last area of the park to open for the season. And while the platform is gone, people can still visit the stop along the drive and take in the vast landscape.
'The view is exactly the same,' Tucker said.
