Don't Bust the Crust! Trails T-Shirt:

Cryptobiotic soil crusts form when communities of microscopic algae, fungi, lichens, and mosses, grow together in desert soils—gluing soil particles together to form a living symbiotic matrix. These cryptic lifeforms—vital to the health of arid ecosystems, are also highly vulnerable to human disturbance.

For decades, Jayne Belnap and the amazing folks at the National Parks Service (NPS) have acted as human advocates for these remarkable and unassuming lifeforms. Today we feel honored to help them boost that signal with a re-release of their original “Don’t Bust the Crust” conservation campaign.