Upcoming Radio Interview

Everyone, be sure to check out Robert and Linda Scarth on the Dottie Ray Show!
Tuesday, October 6
8:45 AM
Tune in to KXIC AM-800
Robert and Linda are the photographers behind Deep Nature: Photographs from Iowa, interviews and art will be posted right here on the Bur Oak Blog in the coming weeks.

Plant of the week: Oct 2

Pasque flower

Anemone patens L.

other common names: April fool, badger, Easter plant, gosling, hartshorn, prairie smoke (also applied to another plant), rock lily, wild crocus, windflower, prairie crocus

Anemone: the ancient Greek and Latin name, a variation of the Semitic name for the mythological Adonis, from whose blood a crimson-flowered Anemone of the Orient is said to have sprung

Patens: from Latin, meaning "spreading"

Buttercup family: Ranunculaceae

Photograph by Thomas Rosburg, from Wildflowers of the Tallgrass Prairie: The Upper Midwest, Second Edition

Photographs from Interview with Bill Witt

Tall sunflower, Hayden Prairie State Preserve - In early September 1996, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and other organizations held a ceremony to mark the 50th anniversary of the state's purchase of Hayden Prairie. I attended in my official capacity as state representative, so I went wearing a sport jacket, tie, slacks, etc., instead of my regular field clothes. But I was not totally unprepared: fortunately, I had brought along my "car camera," a 1968 Pentax Spotmatic, which I kept stowed behind the front seat in an old, towel-lined Army surplus ammo box. The ceremonies were brief, and it was one of those bright, cool, clear September afternoons that beg you to get out and look for pictures. So as the crowd broke up, I pulled out the old Pentax and 28mm and 105mm SMC-Takumar lenses and headed into the tall grass. This image was made with the 105, on Fujichrome Provia film, f/13.5 @ 1/125th.

Rainbow at Cedar Hills Sand Prairie State Preserve - About 4:30 in the afternoon of a daylong steady rain, I looked out the window of my office at the University of Northern Iowa and saw an unbroken thread of sunlight across the western horizon. Realizing that a rainbow might be in the making, I dropped everything, dashed home, and grabbed my camera bag and tripod. I had been observing and photographing at the sand prairie the day before, and I could visualize almost exactly how and where I could frame some flowers with a rainbow. The heavy rain curtain moved ponderously eastward, and when I arrived at the prairie just before 5, the rainbow was just brightening and filling its arc. I hurried out to the spot I'd visualized and spent a few minutes composing the image. I set the tripod low to the ground, to simplify the composition AND avoid casting its shadow into the picture. I had to do likewise with my own shadow--and lie on my side in the soaking grass. Nikon FM, 24mm f/2.8 Nikkor, with polarizer, f/16 at 1 second on Kodachrome 64.

Iris at moonrise, King-Stiles Prairie - A long-time acquaintance, Bruce Stiles, learned to love and treasurethis small, wet prairie from his grandmother, Addie King, who delighted in it in her girlhood in the 1890s, preserving it from tillage until she died. Bruce Stiles struggled for years to gain full title to his grandmother's beloved prairie and to undo a relative's determined (and expensively unsuccessful) efforts to drain and plow it. Bruce finally succeeded, and he has spent 18 years nurturing its ladyslipper orchids, blue flag irises, and other unusual and beautiful species back to health. Kodak DCS-Pro digital slr, 20mm f/3.5 Nikkor, f/4.5 at 1second at ISO 400.

Bill Witt is the photographer of Enchanted by Prairie

An Interview with Bill Witt: Part 1

What has changed in the prairie world since your first days of photographing these areas? What's better, what's worse?

Foremost are the number of Iowans who now champion our prairies and work to protect, preserve, and restore them. Thirty years ago, there were only a handful of prairie-loving landowners, "old-timers" mostly, and some visionary academics who followed in the footsteps of Hayden, Shimek, and Macbride, and a few younger up-and-comers. Organizations like the Nature Conservancy and the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation were just getting a few toe-holds on the landscape and in the public's awareness. But thanks to their persistent good work, tens of thousands of Iowans now know about, appreciate, celebrate, and actively support and take part in prairie protection and management. That's led to the second great outcome: we have rediscovered many thousands of prairie acres that had been "mislaid," forgotten, given up as lost--and we are restoring them to their original diversity and beauty.

The flip side is that as many prairie lands have been "found" and put back into active, restorative ownership, the resources needed to maintain them have gotten stretched thinner. So, in an ironic twist, some smaller, excellent prairie remnants have declined--native species diversity has declined and alien invasives increased--because time and money have been diverted to other prairie projects.

Bill Witt is the photographer of Enchanted by Prairie

Image from The Iowa Nature Calendar: October

Hooded Merganser

Image by Claudia McGehee, from The Iowa Nature Calendar