Little progress on the prairie

© harrington

Hi! Thanks for coming. I'm not even going to try to include any comments about the season(s) or the weather(s) today. I have a severe case of seasonal whiplash. So, sounding a little like an economist, "on the other hand," if you can read the message on the sign in the photo, you'll have a glimmer of why I usually send some money every year to the good folks at The Nature Conservancy. The sign is near the trail center at Wild River State Park. I wrote a few days ago about visiting there last Saturday. (You may have figured out by now that I'm a big fan protecting what little prairie we have left and restoring as much as we can.) The Nature Conservancy has been a major player in Minnesota and is now partnering with Minnesota DNR and others to follow through on the Minnesota Prairie Conservation Plan. Today I had a work-related trip out through the Bird Island and Hector and Glencoe vicinity. Although this morning the horizon was severely foreshortened by snow, this afternoon, on the way home, I got to see some country I haven't visited for awhile and it reminded me that Minnesota's prairie country has had a special place in my heart for a long while. I'm really happy that I found some much closer to home. The bad news is that about 99% of the original prairie is gone. The good news is that we seem to be increasing what remains from 1% to 1.01%. I don't know about you, but with most of the news these days, I'll take whatever small victories we can get. Thanks for listening. Come again when you can. Rants, raves and reflections served daily here in My Minnesota.