My Beach

My house is up on a bluff which you can see in the last photo; there is a rather steep blacktop road on my property that leads from the top of the bluff to the beach which I rarely go down to.

Sunday Morning

Phragmites are a non-native, tall, plumed, rhizomatous grass that has invaded roadsides and beaches all over Michigan (and elsewhere). It out-competes native cattails and destroys natural environments.

It was all over our beaches up here; we sprayed with an EPA approved chemical last fall which got rid of everyone else's phragmites but left some of mine. The storm which lasted the last two days removed some more of mine so that I now have, almost have, a beach. Clicking enlarges photos.

Looking North

(Note the zebra mussel shells. Like phragmites, they are also an introduced alien species which filters plankton out of the water removing the base of the food chain upon which our native fish depend.)

Looking South

Looking East

Looking West

(You can see a corner of my double deck on the left.)

(The blacktop road slants down from left to right.)