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, 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

so much springwater—

the silly

things we’re surprised by

century’s portal

wet stone scent

chipmunks’ secret life

birch bark, friends. birch bark.

sna poems #148: waubesa wetlands

January 1, 2024July 3, 2024 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

a couple updates for those reading. first, i don’t usually put much personal stuff on here, but my wife and i just bought a house in milwaukee, wisconsin about a month ago. been here eight years, and it feels good to be settling in for real. just to say, things happen but also that’s part of why i haven’t had much time to get out into the unbuilt spaces lately. second, for those enjoying the verse, my second collection of poems, be radiant, is coming out from fernwood press in january, so stay tuned for more info on that front. anyhow:

waubesa wetlands lie in a larger nature conservancy site, a sprawling fen-dominant wetland complex with springs and streams feeding. we walked in and were able to navigate the drier areas, but two steps out into the mud flat along one of the streams put me knee-deep in mud. (had waders on.) so we tramped back around along one of the spring runs instead and sat in the wooded edge before heading on. quiet due to winter and all, dock abundant among the grasses.

the bird calls really

our foot-falls

but for one stray duck

“all the dry grasses,”

snyder said:

but not these grasses

cloud whisps in the sky

my children

gone for christmas break

willow cone gall midge:

disholcaspis gall wasp on oak:

sna poems #143: wedde creek savanna

June 28, 2023 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

wedde creek savanna is a black oak savanna, a formerly characteristic habitat in southern wisconsin. open-grown black oaks, jack pines, so many oaklings, and lichen everywhere underfoot!

a good evening walk, tho’ so many ticks. first id of pixie cup lichen, lyreleaf rockcress, and sundial lupine!

marquette westering

whip-poor-will

last night’s memory

red-tipped pixie cup

stretches out

under oaken shade

sna poems #142: observatory hill

June 27, 2023July 3, 2024 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

observatory hill in marquette cty is a large outcropping of rhyolite almost two billion years old. tallest point in the cty, oak and hickory forest on the slope, a spectacular glade community toward the top open to the sun.

we spent a good amount of time soaking it up in the glade, laying on the rhyolite. first id of motherwort and tall wood sorrel!

the hickories proud

in the sun

spiderwort in bloom

the glade lives exposed

rhyolite

and blue dragonflies

sna poems series supplementum #41: pewit’s nest again

April 14, 2023 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

a sna we’ve visited several times, and that i’ve written about on several occasions.

but we went back again easter monday on a lark and weren’t disappointed. a gorge in the sandstone along skillet creek, we visited with the creek for a bit—one child fell in again, no worries—snail shell near the bank, huge lichen and walls of fern on the cliff face, and the barred owl we saw last year perched in the same tree. an idyllic surprisingly warm late-afternoon.

sixteen elf cups

and barred owl

cool in the pine boughs

sna poems #135: deansville fen

March 30, 2023 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

deansville fen is a calcareous fen in a larger marsh wetland complex in dane cty, wisconsin. sedge meadow and hummocky wet prairie surround. crossing a tributary stream was quick and painless on a massive old tree that had fallen across but the maunesha river itself was trickier—involving gathering three vines growing out of the riverbank with the foot in order to create a suspended step above the water while lunging out to other small trees growing in the water while balanced on a protruding log caught in an accidental dam in the river—one foot went way in on the way back out!

but a fine morning in the fen, quiet, some birds singing, not much new growth yet. turkey and rabbit tracks in the snow.

sunbleached snag in march

stretches out

above new fen-growth

fen-grove

branch-creak

wind

cottonwood leaves

with algae

in the wetland’s mouth

a very awkward

wading bird

stalks the morning edge

sna poems, series anthropocenum #19 (late entry): bender park

July 19, 2022 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

bender park is an apparently fairly developed and now returning to a rewilded state piece of land on lake michigan in oak creek. it abuts the oak creek power plant and there are some precipitous drops down to the lake.

this was a “let’s not go to work just yet” walk from last december. but i lost the pomes i had written shortly thereafter, so i bagged this entry. this morning i went to open up a book i hadn’t looked at since last december and—what do you know—there were the pomes tucked inside marking my page from late last year. so, i thought i’d pull the photos back up and give bender park its due. here we go.

siren call across

the prairie

the asci don’t mind