The Daily Beast - August 15, 2010

A ribbon snake is seen on salvinia in a cypress swamp adjacent to marsh that stretches to the Gulf of Mexico in Barataria Preserve, part of Jean Lafitte National Park and Reserve outside Lafitte, La. on August 6, 2010.   This bay which was the scene of the first startling images of oil-caked birds, already has shoots of marsh grass and mangroves growing back. The marsh is healing itself. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)