Watching Restoration

Among the many benefits of returning to the same location many times over years, is that you get to see and appreciate the changes which occur. At the Indiana Dunes National Park much of the park land has been reclaimed from prior use for residential and agricultural purposes. Much of the park was once a single large marsh named the Great Marsh. Years of development however effectively destroyed the ecosystem of the marsh. With the establishment of the park, and its efforts to acquire land, much of what once was the Great Marsh is being returned to its natural state. The eastern end of the park near the town of Beverly Shores is currently undergoing restoration. It is has been fascinating to get to know this part of the park and to see the changes over time. Right now this area offers a really unique opportunity to view both restored and unrestored land literally side by side. The image above shows a view of the Great Marsh from the Dune Ridge trail. It beautifully shows an area awaiting restoration and an area which has been restored. I have annotated the photograph to show the areas of interest. The blue line represents the location of a closed portion of Beverly Dr. which serves as an unofficial trail right through the middle of the marsh. In yellow I have marked the location of a small bridge spanning a cut in the road. The rest of this post uses photographs I took recently to show the differences between the restored and unrestored portions.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *