In August of 2023, I was fortunate enough to be invited to spend two weeks exploring Indiana Dunes National Park as an Artist-in-Residence. The Park is located at the southern tip of Lake Michigan, and has a uniquely wonderful story of conservation and restoration. The Park is one of the most diverse in the nation, with many unique habitats nestled side by side in the dune-and-swale topography left by the glacial activity that formed the Great Lakes. As the glaciers receded, they left a series of shorelines, each with their own dunes. The Tolleston, Calumet, and Glenwood dunes are remnant dune complexes that can be seen in the park today, and between them lie the wetlands.

During my time in the park I was fascinated by the variety and abundance of wetlands there. The hours I spent in the Great Marsh, Cowles Bog, Pinhook Bog, and other areas inspired me to do further research and paint these wonderful ecosystems and the species that call them home. Their history is particularly fascinating due to their unique location. Indiana Dunes National Park is not a remote wilderness, but is instead surrounded by industry and community, and most of the park's land has been reclaimed from overdevelopment. Many wetlands are overrun with invasive cattail (Typha angustifolia), reeds (Phragmites australis), and purple loostrife (Lythrum salicaria). But these challenges have provided a catalyst for some truly remarkable restoration work that continues to this day. The park’s efforts have resulted in an incredible patchwork of habitat stretching across its 15 miles of shoreline. 

The wetlands I chose to focus on only scratch the surface of the diversity found within the park.There many more kinds of wetlands, including pannes, prairies, seeps, and vernal pools. Many of these types can be broken down further into subtypes such as shrub swamp, floodplain forest, emergent marsh, sedge meadow, or pocosin.  Additionally, most wetlands are not isolated units, but wetland complexes. Cowles Bog, for instance, does not currently contain a bog, though there is record of one from the time Henry Cowles first studied the area. Instead, it is a mixture of fen, swamp, and wet prairie. At the risk of oversimplification, I decided to focus for this project on four easily recognizable wetland types: Marshes, Swamps, Fens, and Bogs.

Wetlands are generally classified into five systems: Marine, Estuarine, Riverine, Lacustrine, and Palustrine. Marine and Estuarine are both defined by the presence of saltwater, and thus are not present in the park. Riverine wetlands are associated with moving channels of water such as rivers or streams, and Lacustrine wetlands are associated with large bodies of water such as lakes. Both are present in the park. The four wetlands I illustrated all fall into the Palustrine system- freshwater, non-tidal, vegetated wetlands. From there, it gets a little more complex. Scientists classify wetlands by hydrology, substrate, vegetation, chemistry and more. These classifications do not always fit neatly with colloquial classifications like Bog, Marsh, etc. Additionally, these colloquial names are often misused. 

My goal with this poster was not to provide a definitive guide to wetland classification. My goal was to explore the wetlands that are found in the Indiana Dunes National Park, and to inspire people to appreciate these extraordinary ecosystems. I hope that the information in this poster inspires you to ask more questions about your environment, its history, and its inhabitants- to be curious about who you are sharing your space with. The closer you look, the more there is to see.