[Magdalen] The Prairie in Winter

[Scott Knitter]

Here in Chicago, I sit on a plain that was once the bottom of the ancient
glacial Lake Chicago. Our city is flat for the most part, but we live just
east of Ridge Boulevard, which runs on the top of a rather subtle ridge
that used to be a sandbar under Lake Chicago. It was years before I figured
out the street was on a ridge...you can see that the streets that intersect
Ridge Boulevard descend a bit on either side. This is easier to see in
Evanston, about two miles north of us.

On Thu, Dec 27, 2018 at 2:06 PM cantor03--- via Magdalen <
magdalen at herberthouse.org> wrote:

> I'm not sure that fire in, say, Eastern Montana, provokes theclimax
> prairie that predominates there.  There simply is notenough rainfall to
> sustain growth of trees.
> That is not the case in Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois wherethe
> natural biome would be deciduous forest without human intervention.In the
> Prairie Wedge, that intervention was perpetuated by the AmericanIndians.
> As much as I admire the American Indian (Native American) spirituality,and
> also feel strongly that they have been given a bum rap by the
> dominant Western culture secondary to European immigration,
> AmericanIndians were not perfect in their husbandry in North America.
> Theannihilation of quite a number of animal species due to over-hunting
> isone of those imperfections.
> I can't help but be just a little amused at my own Alma Mater's
> fascinationwith the "restoration" of prairie which is actually an
> artificial and technicallyunnatural condition for the territory known as
> the Prairie Wedge.
> Blame my tree mania for my feelings, here.  I'll take a deciduous
> forestover grassland any day.
> I should mention here my best college friend, Charles Sommers,
> whocommitted suicide during the months I was in re-hab five years ago.He
> was a botanist by training, and a protege of Dr. Curtis, well
> knownUW-Madison botanist.  Charles loved the prairies.  As an
> undergraduate,he was brilliant, and could have easily walked into a medical
> career, butloved his plants too much.  I miss him terribly.
> I would be remiss, however, not to compliment you on your photos.
> It'shard to photograph prairie.
>
> David S.
> In a message dated 12/27/2018 2:01:24 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> jhandsfield at att.net writes:
>
> All prairie is a fire climax biome.
>
>
>

-- 
Scott R. Knitter
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois USA