Nothing but Wind

Photo by GoodOak.com

 Prairies, taken for granted and even despised for their monotony, prairies are what much of the center of North America are meant to be, at least in this epoc.  Pre-European invasion, Wisconsin was a mix of primordial forest and open grassland. While much of the far north remains forest--second or even third growth forest--the southern swath has been converted to farmland.

Wisconsin's woods are vacation nirvana. Anyone who has been on Wisconsin northbound highways on a Friday afternoon can attest to that. Vehicle after vehicle is decorated with an out-of-state license plate. In the winter they are spiked with ski racks or pulling snowmobile trailers. In the summer they zoom up the highways with boats and campers. Everyone rushes to the northern woods, including me.

As a reader of Troll Tails, you have seen my appreciation of the wetlands surrounding my hometown, but there is more to this part of Wisconsin. Farmland has its charms, but here and there, landowners are allowing their land to return to the wild, and slowly the land begins to bloom. I think there's a story here, and I hope to share it with you this year.

Photo by Jim Brandenburg