winter fingers the rip-rap
sprawling wave-spray in the air
ice will find a way
mckinley park is a lakefront park in milwaukee with a marina, beach, and other things going on. part of the shore has a long pile of rip-rap (tumbled rock and concrete) that my kids love to climb on. it’s a bit more treacherous these days, with lake michigan’s spray slicking the rocks in ways unexpected, beautiful, and (at times) dangerous. i was particularly taken by the ice display on driftwood last night.
Well: the original project of visiting all 28 State Natural Areas in Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Washington, Waukesha, and Racine Counties that I imagined when COVID-shutdown commenced is complete as of this morning with a visit to Fairy Chasm SNA. The original idea (visit each area, take one picture, write one three-line poem) blossomed out into many more pictures and poems, and two sub-series.
A HUGE thank you to my wife and kids (who’ve visited almost all of them with me), and to everyone who’s stopped here to read one, two, or all of them!
So: the original projection is done. But of course there are hundreds more SNAs, and I will press on visiting them and keep this project going as I’m able, since it has helped me to learn so much about the geology, natural history, and plant, animal, moss, lichen, and fungal communities of the world around me here in southeastern Wisconsin. But most of all, to forge connections with the earth itself (with all its various systems) and all these creatures who share our common home. So stay tuned if you like. 🙂
Here’s more:
a.
owls and kinglets at dawn
the chickadees keep us company—
rivulets into streams into seas
b.
we march along ridges
sky-jewel burning thru birches
logs thru translucent ice
c.
limestone my childhood’s rock
tumbled off unarticulated till—
death is worth this sedimentary brotherhood
d.
a downy woodpecker ensouls the sky
frost feathers leaf and moss
glaciers give bountiful gifts
e.
nature’s an abstraction. rock
and sand, water, bark and bird—
these touch the hand, creature the heart.
fairy chasm state natural area is a 22-acre plot of land surrounding—you guessed it—fairy chasm, a gorge thru which runs fish creek. the creek has worn thru unconsolidated glacial till and drains directly into lake michigan. the north side of the gorge has a micro-climate amenable to more northerly species, and a wood of white pine, white cedar, birches, and beech. the south side is gentler with juniper ground cover.
no wood-meres, water-elves, or other fairy-folk were spotted.
(i also took a detour into donges bay gorge natural area, since i parked there to get to fairy chasm…)
brilliant ochre plumes
ride beneath oak, walnut
peat deepens under sun
b.
small flowage
over peat and stone—
starlings, no cranes
peat lake is a very shallow lake with a mucky bottom, with sedge meadow and cattail marsh stretches. lots of birds, not many fish. a delightful walk all around. and the lichen growing on the iron bar of the gate near the wildlife refuge area was stunning.
this site and the chiwaukee prairie were our first s.n.a.’s in kenosha county—two more to go! thanks to the wisconsin dnr for preserving this site.
a.
east wind blowing
speaks in dried grass
straw and tan tones
b.
blade and stem
anchor earth
bluestem charm
chiwaukee prairie is one of the largest prairie complexes in wisconsin and one of the state’s most intact coastal wetlands. it spans thru-out a series of streets and houses, but has large segments of unbroken land too. it sits on swale and and ridge topography where lake michigan’s shoreline has receded in stages since the last ice age. over 400 species of plants find a home here.
tho’ mainly dormant now in late novemeber, the plant cover is still lovely in its dryness, especially in the winds off the lake. thanks to the wdnr for caring for this land, and to uw-parkside and the nature conservancy with helping acquire the land from developers.
a.
piercers of sky,
hoary beeches
leaves on the mounds
b.
ten-thousand years
of peat and water building
purple cress is sleeping
c.
ostrich fern
and skunk cabbage
ahead of snow
Indian Mound Park in Sheboygan is a great sign of Wisconsin’s conflicted history. It is a treasure for how in 1966 the Sheboygan Garden Clubs saved the large group of effigy, conical, and linear mounds built here by Middle and Late Woodland indigenous inhabitants of Wisconsin (ca. 200 BCE-1000 CE). However, of course, the mounds would not have needed saving if the land hadn’t been ceded by local tribes thru dubious treaties long before. Nonetheless, I am supremely glad they remain here, along with the wetland downslope from the mounds (thru which runs Hartman Creek) and the very old beech trees thru-out the park. It is a tremendous place. Deer and water panther mounds—a real grace to visit on Thanksgiving. (If you’d like more on my perspective on the mounds, you can read that here.)
a.
juniper creeping arms
cloud low over lake-wave
white pines offer shelter
b.
moss and marram thrive
in graded duney pockets
breeze cooling the curves
c.
dune thistle taps the winded
sand, clutches these lake-sides
keeps a home for now
kohler park dunes is just a tremendous dune ecosystem along the shore of lake michigan. a home for several endangered plants, creeping juniper, white pines, broomrape and wormwood, et al. can’t wait to get back in the summer to see it at peak growth. our first state natural area in sheboygan county!
a.
one step and in the seep
adrift in mud and water
inlets feeding the wet maw
b.
hooves down the mudbank
lone cardinal off and away
fittingly, we finish in a fen
c.
open autumn sky
over lakefen calm
waters running on
ottawa lake fen has two lakes joined by marsh and marl flats. the lakes are remnants of a glacial lake at the edge of end moraine deposits. a wide variety of wildlife—pitcher plants, gentians, snails, clams, shrub-carr, spike rushes, et al.—mostly quiet now though. there are green herons here, though unfortunately they’ve already departed for the year. maybe in the spring. tall and lanky thornbushes spilled down the path out to the lake, which made for exciting and delicate walking.
pine scent heavy
on air like tobacco
yarrow dries on the stem
clifford messinger dry prairie and savanna is, as the last post noted, actually thirteen different sites, with prairie and oak opening habitats. this one in walworth county is undeveloped and gorgeous. lots of burrs though!
ridging delicate till
distant rifles echo
root-wad drops new life
clifford messinger dry prairie and savanna preserve is actually thirteen various sites that include prairie and oak opening thru-out the kettle-moraine area. a delightful walk, though a bit of trepidation as deer-hunting season has opened and we hiked to the near-constant sound of gunfire. but i am glad for the support hunters give our wild and natural spaces, don’t get me wrong! gorgeous pines leading into the prairie under autumn skies.
a.
a dawning sun
over ash and maple
leaf mosaic
b.
rock peppers the whelm
of soils’ graceful tumult
wind in the naked boughs
c.
a triumph of woven glacier sculpting
undulation of stone, stock, and stipe—
the ridge and ravine don’t care that I’m here
d.
the tongue stumbles on strange grasses
and brain falters with dumb bark
first glimpse of beech makes me known
e.
birch stand
over water
lean into silence
cedarburg beech woods is a mesic forest of predominantly sugar maple, beech, and white ash. the southern section has glacial rolling topography and the northern lowlands are flatter with some boggy or marshy (i couldn’t tell which) areas. tremendous dawn hike.
thanks to the uw-field station staff for maintaining this site and for granting me permission to walk the lands!
Jacob Riyeff 