The sand dunes along Lake Michigan are gifts of the west wind. 

It was here that the father of ecology, Henry Chandler Cowles, made observations about the rapidly changing plant life that led to the

science of ecology.

In 1899 he published

The Ecological Relation of the Vegetation on the Sand Dunes of Lake Michigan

 In this paper he showed the  mutual relationships between plants and their environment.

“Ecology is a study in dynamics,” he wrote.

The word dynamic means change. The Great Lakes are dynamic.

Sand dunes are dynamic, making them a living laboratory for the

study of ecology.

Excerpt from The Dynamic Great Lakes

Available from Barnes & Noble and many other fine bookstores.