Part of the Great Marsh in the Indiana Dunes.

Click on image to zoom in.

Every picture tells a story, and some have more than one tale to tell.  There are several elements in the above image which inspired me to record the scene.

I came upon this scene while crossing a swamp on a boardwalk which which is part of a trail in the Indiana Dunes State Park.  The first thing to catch my attention was the stand of dead trees in the midst of an otherwise vibrant area.  This is actually not at all uncommon as you travel through this area.  So what would cause such a thing?  Clearly it was not the result of fire, there are no burn marks on the trees.  What about pollution from the nearby steel mills and power generating stations?  Seemed unlikely since literally everything but the trees appeared healthy.  The answer to the puzzle becomes apparent upon closer examination of the trees themselves.  Notice how most of the bark has peeled away from the trunks of the trees.  The real key though are the squiggly groves carved in the tree trunks which look like some sort of hieroglyphics.  Emerald Ash Borers.  These are the remains of ash trees which were killed by these invasive beetles.

The next element to capture my interest was the intense carpet of green floating all around the stand of dead ash trees.  What looks like some sort of pond scum turns out to be made up of one of the smallest flowering plants known as Duckweed.  The Duckweed in this area is somewhat denser than what you typically see in the area however.  The reason for this lies in the foreground of the scene, which leads us to the third element.

Click on image to zoom in and see the granular nature of the Duckweed.

All of the sticks and bramble along the bottom of the image are part of a beaver dam which is at least a quarter mile long.  The backed up water allows the Duckweed to grow and spread relatively unchecked.

So to me the story of this image is an unusual stand of dead trees situated in the midst of an area jam packed with vibrant life bounded by an impressively long beaver dam.