It’s common for naturalists to draw connections between places they visit. Think of John Muir, for example, reflecting in his Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf, on the plants he found along the way and their similarities to plants he’d left back in Wisconsin. In the May/June issue of Omaha Magazine, I examine similarities between two places I’ve come to know, as well as the ways that sandhill cranes connect people to both places.
To read, open the link to the full issue and click to page 66.
The land along Prairie Lane near the Crawfish River was a cornfield for as long as I could remember. In March, 1999, I joined a volunteer work crew to help begin the process of restoring wetland and prairie habitat at Faville Grove Sanctuary. It was my first experience with habitat restoration and it changed the course of my life. This article in Wisconsin Natural Resources Magazine explains a little bit about why Faville Grove is important to me: “Rooted in the Past, a Sanctuary Grows.”
In 1867, John Muir crossed northern Florida on his way to the Gulf of Mexico
“Chk, chk.” The voice comes from a nearly leafless tree in the soggy floodplain of the Baraboo River. I look up at two rusty blackbirds – and now a third flies in. They confer briefly – perhaps about me – and drop to the ground, out of sight. The blackbirds, migrating from their breeding grounds in Canada, are heading south, maybe just to Illinois, but possibly as far as the Gulf of Mexico.
It’s October 24, 2016. One hundred fifty-nine years ago today, John Muir, having just walked “joyful and free” from Indiana to the Gulf of Mexico, fell ill with malaria. His sickness and long recuperation interrupted his plans to travel onward to South America. More importantly, they almost certainly changed the course of conservation history in the United States by sending the young naturalist on a different path. Continue reading