sna poems, series supplementum #47: mammoth ridge

March 29, 2025 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

driving back from mineral point and cave of the mounds, we saw this dramatic bedrock hill that was fairly recently acquired for the wisconsin ice age trail. (would guess the bedrock is st. peter sandstone here, but couldn’t confirm.) this is just west of the johnstown moraine, where the wisconsin glacier stopped and retreated.

a nice and muddy circumambulation of the hill with remnant prairie on it set between farm fields. a bit of a bummer not to be able to climb up and see the surrounding terrain, but signs posted that they’re doing restoration work, so we celebrated being able to help support lots of other creatures having some space instead.

no climbing today

but will care

for lives we don’t know

redwings by the creek

past burned out

stumps and turkey tails

sna poems, series anthropocenum #25: merry christmas mine

March 22, 2025 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

on my spring break we headed west. not too far west, but over past the johnstown moraine that marks where the last glacier stopped, into what we call round these parts the drifltess area.

lit out to mineral point and merry christmas mine, where early wisconsin settlers mined galena (a lead mineral) and dug the holes in the side of the hill to live in. this led to our nickname as “the badger state,” b/c they lived like badgers in holes in the ground, for a while at least. the depression in the picture above is an example of what’s left of them.

nice stop, lots of fun. hadn’t sat under the sun surrounded by plants (dead or alive) for a few months, so no complaints here. sandhill cranes coming back over head.

merry christmas mine

at high noon

walking on spring’s cusp

my daughter sketching

a new life

on the fallen grass

oak buds releasing

their fluid

in light march breezes

sna poems #151: north bay

August 26, 2024August 26, 2024 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

well, we’ve crossed the line over 150 state natural areas visited. hadn’t thought we’d get here when this began, especially when this project started slowing down after things picked up once the worst of the pandemic was behind us. but here we are. a trip to door cty last week put us across the 150 line.

north bay sna in door cty is a varied site with undeveloped shoreline on lake michigan (rare in door cty), wetlands, springs and seeps, mesic and boreal forest. i only walked thru the coniferous woods at the beginning of the site from the dead end road, but was pleasantly surprised by the variety of plant life, club moss, et alia. got some weird vibes about a half hour in and trusted it since i was alone and turned round, but a fine afternoon jaunt nonetheless.

first id of pearly everlasting, spurred gentian, northern bugleweed, and red baneberry!

so many ferns here

too few names

birch limbs all around

this lune is for you,

dear lorine—

everlasting bracts

how to put in words

the texture

of club moss and fir?

such small minutemen

on cypress

is bear lurking near?

first day of the new academic year, here i come.

sna poems #150: black earth rettenmund prairie

June 4, 2024July 3, 2024 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

been a while. but after a visit with family, me and the kids headed west to this dry mesic prairie remnant just past the terminal moraine in the driftless area (where the last glaciation didn’t touch). mostly situated on a dramatic hill, this prairie was grazed but not plowed, according to the wdnr’s website. lots of native species still inhabiting, a small oak proudly taking up the hill’s crest as its home.

many first time id’s and a few old friends hanging out. first id’s of wood lily, seneca snakeroot, blue-eyed grass, flowering spurge, prairie phlox.

first day that a walk in the sun got uncomfortably hot this year. could have sat on the hilltop all day long.

bright lamp of the hill

bolt upright

in dane cty breeze

above the valley

delicate

puccoon blossom stands

sna poems, series supplementum #44: newell and ann meyer nature preserve

April 3, 2024April 3, 2024 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

this preserve is 652 acres donated by the meyers a ways back. there’s oak savanna, a wood, wetland, and small agricultural land that the nature conservancy is sprucing up back into prairie. they had just done a burn on some of the restored prairie before we arrived.

the morning was turning from sprinkly to downright rainy by the time we got there, and the rain only got heavier. but an enjoyable walk anyhow, and in ways even more so for all the wet. willows and hazels putting out catkins, lots of fungus, serious lichen colonies on the shagbark hickory, sandhills calling once again, and, most surprisingly, two swans flew into the wetland as we watched them from the wood.

first id of what i think is bark mycena (the tiniest mushroom you ever did see).

downwind from the burn

bird partners

two white rafts enmarshed

log fungal splendors

all ruddy—

the shins growing wet

sna poems series anthropocenum #24: paradise springs

March 16, 2024 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

oh man, there’s been so much family health stuff going on! been a bit of a challenge to get out for a walk around the neighborhood let alone hiking hither and yon. took the chance on thursday to set out off west with my dad to get some walking in.

started with a light rain as we set out on i-94 but was a steady fall by the late morning when we left our second site. worth it, and a cold ride home.

paradise springs is a spring site that goes back well over a hundred years with a spring house, dam, and mill that are all now in ruins. quite a place though—so much water coming out of the main spring; wild. a nice morning jaunt, none too strenuous but a nice little wood and pond. dad happened on a small community of chipmunks behind the spring house that were having quite a time running up and down the hill in back. lots of chatter.

on our way to the car, we noticed a birch that had immensely thick bark going 20-30 ft off the ground. by far the oldest birch i’ve seen. in awe.

first id (methinks) of dust lichen.

grass and moss along

the cobbles

gray missing of work