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European settlers likened the American prairie to a boundless “sea of grass.” If you zoom in to the perspective of the thousands of species that inhabit this under-appreciated landscape, however, it’s nothing like the vast, lonely ocean — more like a raucous festival crowd, buzzing with life.
Wisconsin’s Schurch-Thomson Prairie is a pointillist painting in early August, dotted with the golden coronas of black-eyed Susans, the Doctor Seussian spires of blazing star, and almost-fluorescent pops of purple coneflowers. That palette is in constant flux, as new plants bloom from April through October.
“It’s always different, it’s always exciting,” says Britta Petersen of the conservation group Pheasants Forever. “You don’t know how diverse it is until you get in there.”
