Dune scrubbing

On my trek to Montrose Point last weekend, I discovered that the dunes had been ravaged by the storm that hit us in mid-December. The sandy area in the top photo, shown a couple summers ago, was littered with debris and the sign in the photo had been washed into a pile of riprap. The 15-foot waves must have poured right over the pier and into the dunes. The bottom photo, from last weekend, shows where dune grasses (in the darker brown area in the photo) were scrubbed away by the lake. All that's left is the rhizomatic mat, holding together the sand. I doubt the dunes, just less than two decades old, have ever been hit by anything like this before. It will be interesting to watch them regenerate this spring and in the months and years ahead.