Leave No Trace

By: Kaitlyn Kausler

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is a breathtaking place with rolling dunes, crystal clear lakes, and miles of natural beauty. Protecting Sleeping Bear starts with you.

Every year, on average 1.7 million visitors visit the Lakeshore to hike, swim, camp, and, more importantly, to explore the scenic routes and places. That kind of love comes with responsibility. One of the simplest and most important ways to help is to pack out all your trash. Small items like bottle caps, snack wrappers, food scraps, and even bags can pile up fast, leading trash cans to fill up even faster. You doing your part plays a big role in helping to keep the park clean.

When bins overflow, wind and wildlife scatter garbage across dunes, trails, and beaches. That not only damages the landscape, but it also takes away from the experience of everyone who comes after you. Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes encourages all visitors to follow Leave No Trace principles and pack it in, pack it out.

By carrying your trash out with you, you help:

·       Prevent overflowing cans

·       Keep wildlife safe

·       Protect the natural beauty of the park and its surroundings

·       Ensure a cleaner, more enjoyable visit for everyone

We all have a part to play in preserving our favorite places. Let's leave it better than we found it, by leaving no trace that we were ever there and by doing all we can for the next family as well as the next generation.