Turtle Talk

From Environment News Service:

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on Lake Michigan is in danger of being loved to death. High numbers of visitors are trampling down vegetation and erosion is occurring in high traffic areas. Water quality and the ecological integrity of Lake Michigan at the Dunes is in poor condition due to invasive species such as quagga and zebra mussels, which have taken over most of the lakebed.

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (Photo courtesy National Park Service)

At Sleeping Bear Dunes, the toxic chemicals most present in the air are toluene, xylene-iso, benzyne, formaldehyde, and trichloroethylene, xylene-m, and perchloroethylene. The sources of these pollutants have not been determined. Both sulfates and nitrates are found in concentrations higher than national averages.