Published: March 19, 2008 12:00 am      

New stamp features Sleeping Bear Dunes

EMPIRE -- Chuck Schaeffer traveled for decades with his family to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Leelanau County.

The member of Friends of the Sleeping Bear Dunes enjoys the diverse wildlife along the park's dunes, a habitat he was glad to see recognized with a new set of stamps to be released later this year.

"My children kind of grew up coming to this park and that's one of the reasons we wanted to move to this area for retirement," said Schaeffer, who retired to Maple City last year. "The natural resources in the park here are many and varied."

The national park's coastal habitat is featured in the 10th installment of the U.S. Postal Service's educational stamp series Nature of America, which depicts major plant and animal communities across the country.

The stamp pane, titled Great Lakes Dunes, contains 10 stamps and 27 different species found at Sleeping Bear, including the endangered piping plover and federally threatened Pitcher's thistle.

"The shifting sands drive the dunes, and plants and animals that are able to survive in that kind of environment are fascinating," said Mark Breederland, an educator with the Michigan Sea Grant in Traverse City. "I think all Michiganders should visit there. It's just an outstanding part of the Great Lakes."

The Great Lakes dunes make up one of the largest freshwater dune systems on Earth and are located on all five of the Great Lakes. The most extensive and massive dunes are located along the west Michigan shoreline where conditions are considered ideal for dune formation, according to Postal Service.

The Great Lakes Dunes stamps are set to be released in early October, after the Postal Service increases stamp rates to 42 cents in May. The dune stamp suggestion was picked as one of 25 new subjects from thousands of public recommendations the Postal Service receives each year, Postal Service spokesman Roy Betts said.

Schaeffer and Breederland both hope national exposure will draw attention to the Sleeping Bear's unique environment, which has struggled with invasive species and other environmental problems.

"It's not one of the spectacular scenery type parks like the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone that get a lot of national attention. I think the stamps will help make this park better known across the nation," Schaeffer said.

"We love them almost to death because they are so wonderful," Breederland said.