An Epic Novel by Aaron Ruderman and Edward Lee

Once upon a time, there was a beach.  But this was not just any beach.  It was a beach in the Indiana dunes.  It was the middle of the night, and there was a terrible storm.  The winds whipped over the shoreline, causing huge waves to crash into the beach.  Hundreds of unfortunate birds and insects, brought by the waves, lay on the beach, motionless.  A single bird, a seagull, flying overhead, fights against the wind.  But what is this?  A seed, caught between his feathers, is flung into the storm.  It lands on the beach, right out of reach of the waves.The next morning, confused, the seed woke up.  "Where am I?", he said.  He saw the water of Lake Michigan below him and the tall trees of the forest in the other direction.  He looked around.  All he could see for miles was poor fish and birds that could not see the beach or feel the warm sun.  He saw insects of all shapes and sizes:  butterflies, maggots, and beetles.  He saw huge chunks of wood that had been floating in the water and had washed up the night before.  He was very scared!

The seed sat on the beach for hours, wondering what to do. He stared at the blazing sun as the winds roared across his grass blades. He noticed a puddle a few inches deep not far from him, and he decided to count the seconds that it took for the ground to absorb the water to pass the time.  When all the water percolated, or soaked into the ground, he counted 18 seconds.

Beach

The Marram seedling faced very poor conditions. The unfortunate plant was very thirsty and hungry. The sand absorbed the water too quickly while the blazing sun evaporated most of the water, and the sand carried very few minerals for the Marram grass to live. Not to mention the roaring winds that almost blew the weak Marram grass away. He wondered how he could ever survive! The depressed Marram grass looked around for help, but all he could find were some patches of sand reed and a small handful of cottonwoods, especially further back, up upon some hills. He wondered how they were able to keep themselves rooted to the ground. Then it came to him. 

"Roots!" He exclaimed. The Marram grass stretched its roots down into the sand and when the wind blew, the Marram grass stood in place. The wind blew harder and harder, but all the wind could carry was the sand around him. As days past by, the winds became less fierce, and before he knew it, he was on a hill of his own, thanks to his roots that held him and the sand below in place.

It rained again later that day, and the Marram Grass, with nothing better to do, counted the seconds that it took for the ground to absorb the water.  When all the water percolated, he counted 21 seconds.

The Marram grass found the environment more suitable now that the roots of his neighboring plants and the scattered leaves around him were decaying. As the days past by, the sand built up and the shoreline got further and further away until the Marram grass found himself on the lee side of the sand dune.  The soil had much more nutrients and the water remained in the soil for much longer.  The wind even grew weaker and the sun shined brightly across the blue, cloudless sky. This was the life...... until the blue stem grass came.  The newly rich soil and protection from the wind were perfect conditions for it to grow.  They killed his reed grass companions by stealing their food and water. They intimidated the Marram grass. The blue stems fought in groups and the Marram grass had no way to fight back. All he could do was watch his fellow grasses decay. The Marram grass prayed each day that the blue stems would not invade his territory. Is there anything that could save him from this madness?With only 5 leaves remaining, the Marram grass and a few other plants survived the blue stem raid, but the blue stem were still quite abundant in some places.  The Marram Grass breathed a sigh of relief.  It rained again that night, and again he counted the seconds that it took for the ground to absorb the water.  When all the water percolated, or soaked into the ground, he counted 52 seconds. He realized how the gradually increasing amounts of roots and other obstacles causes the ground to absorb the water much more slowly!

Now the Marram Grass is in a whole new territory. The dead plants caused the soil to be rich enough for new alien plants to grow. They call themselves jack pines and junipers. They eat up so much nutrients, and the soil here barely absorbs the rain. Their monstrous figure and their protruding knife like pine needles even frightened the blue stem grass. Unlike the dune builders, this place is much darker and there is barely any wind. If there was a God, he would help this Marram grass survive.Again it rained, and again the Marram grass counted the seconds it took for the ground to absorb the water.  He counted 377 seconds.  He thought to himself, it is taking much longer for the water to percolate.  This must be because the soil cannot absorb the water as fast as sand.

The Marram grass was afraid that, because of the big, scary jack pines and junipers, there would not be enough sunlight for him.  Luckily, he was growing on a steep slope.  The wind and rain washed the larger trees down the slope, but the Marram grass held tightly.  He saw around him that other blowouts had been caused by people and animals, wind, fires, landslides, and other natural disasters.  He saw in his own and other blowouts that there was plenty of wind and sun.  He also saw other Marram grass like himself colonizing the blowouts.  The Marram grass did not know it, but he was seeing secondary succession.  When he first landed on the beach and took root, this was primary succession.The rain poured from the sky.  Again, the Marram Grass counted the seconds.  He counted 24 seconds.  He thought the lack of soil and plants with roots made percolation faster.

Nature BlowoutMan Made Blowout

The Marram grass was very lucky!  He survived dropping out of the sky, the evil little bluestem, and the shade of the jack pines and junipers.  From his safe view atop the dune, he could see new forms of plants taking root.  Great big hardwood trees with beautiful leaves: oak, sassafrass, hickory, ash, elm.  He saw that under those trees would be worse than living under the junipers and jack pines.  There was almost no sunlight under them!  He saw no Marram grass, no little bluestem:  almost no small plants could grow in the shade of the forest.  He supposed, though, that the protection from the wind would be nice.

One night, it began to rain.  It rained so hard that the following morning, the rich, thick soil in the forest was still wet, as the puddles of water glinted in the morning sun.  He said, "The soil here does not absorb water nearly as fast as the sand on the beach".

And, with nothing to do, he counted the seconds it took for the ground to absorb the water in the puddles.  He counted 261 seconds. This made sense to the Marram grass because the ground was not sand; it was soil! Therefore, it was obvious that the percolation would take longer.

Then one day, the greatest evil yet arrived on the forest edge.  Great big machines, metal monsters with steel teeth and huge claws.  The Marram grass watched in horror as the beautiful trees were flattened, crushed, uprooted.  The machines dug huge wells in the sand and took it to unknown far away lands . The Marram grass wondered, what could big metal machines want with sand. Outraged by this blasphemy, the Marram grass mourned for the wooded dunes as they could have lived peacefully for hundreds or more years if the machines did not interfere with the environment.Oh, how the Marram grass longed to be alone for ages, but it wasn't up til now that he regretted his wish. He recalled how life was like at the beach and dune builders and how the living conditions was just terrible. Now, the Marram grass faced the same situation. He was all alone once again, unfortunately forced to experience another secondary succession. It was not until several years later until he noticed any recognizable plants. It was as if he was traveling back to the past as the various plants that he seen in the different stages of succession were bunched up into small groups within the sandmine. At some places he saw some blue stems growing near a juniper or a jack pine with some of his brothers and sisters. The Marram grass noticed that there might be a correlation between sunlight and wind with the different areas of sucession. In some places, there were less sun, such as the area around the cotton woods. While others, there were more sunlight, especially in the blue stem fields. Regardless, the Marram grass thought that it may be possible for all the plants he had seen could coexist with one another in this area.

Once more, it rained that night, and once more the Marram Grass counted the number of seconds it took for the water to percolate.  He counted 98 seconds, though the Marram grass only tested places around his family, where only a few plants existed, because he was intimidated by the other plants.

    The Marram grass was impressed by the large diversity of plants in the sandmine. However, as the Marram grass turned around, he noticed that there were barely any plants, instead there seemed to be a huge ditch. He could see how the wind blew so much sand that the ground reached the water level, ultimately creating a small pond. The water glistened as the sun radiantly warmed the plants around it, and the nice breeze made him feel calm and content. Now that the Marram grass noticed the plants, he realized they were much different than any plant he seen before. He found new species of plants: Baltic rush, Kalm's lobelia, and Kalm's St. John's wort.     After much contemplation, the Marram grass felt much more satisfied with life. The enlightenment of his adventure on the succession at Indiana Dunes revealed to the Marram grass that there is so much to see in life that is worth living for. As a result, the Marram grass strived to live his life to the fullest, learning and observing everything that was around him.