What was the catalyst—the magic moment—that brought you to appreciate prairies in the first place? How long have you been working to protect and reconstruct them?
The magic moment may have been way back in 1968 out in western Iowa. There is a newspaper picture of me from that year when I was 10 years old on a school field trip with a black-eyed Susan in my mouth, tango style, and I’m admiring a bunch of other prairie plants. Although that moment of initial prairie magic was pushed back to the far recesses of my adolescent brain for a number of years, it all came flooding back when I met Daryl Smith at the University of Northern Iowa in 1980, when he took our class to Mark’s Prairie (Cedar Hills Sand Prairie now). Wow, that 20 acres of virgin prairie was jam-packed with a diversity of life! Along with the sheer beauty of that little patch of prairie came Daryl’s enthusiasm and reverence for how rare a sight it was. I was hooked. Still am. Later that same year after I met Larry Eilers, Bill Haywood, Paul Christiansen, Pauline Drobney, and Bill Watson, how could I not be a rampant prairie addict? Never underestimate the power of mentors and field trips—leave no child inside!
Beyond the tallgrass species, what other plants and animals are you especially interested in?
Everything. I am a certified biodiversity junkie—a silent spring would kill me. Before feeling the guilt of a hypocrite, I used to jet around the planet quite a bit. When I was in Alaska my favorite bird might be the tufted puffin, in Costa Rica it changes to a quetzal and while in Antarctica it’s the emperor penguin. We have planted hundreds of native woodland, grassland, and wetland plants here on our farmlet; the bird feeder is our TV. This fantastic array of species on this amazing planet, from the bizarre to the common, is the spice of life for me. I even find noxious, invasive species interesting, before I kill them, of course.
You’re the brains behind the laminated Bur Oak Guides. Tell us how you got the idea.
The idea for
Prairie in Your Pocket came about because it was a little cumbersome for people to take the
Illustrated Guide to Iowa Prairie Plants out in the field, and I thought arranging the plants by blooming colors would inspire more novices to get out and see what this amazing thing called prairie was all about. The woodland and wetland guides filled out the trilogy for Iowa’s major ecosystems. The pocket guides, posters, DVDs, etc., are all about education and awareness; the more folks know about and become familiar with the natural world, the more they will care about it and hopefully make better life-style choices to preserve and protect it. Open the obit section of any newspaper, so many dead people, but if you don’t know them you probably don’t feel much loss or sadness; the same is true if a little prairie remnant is plowed under, people unfamiliar with the importance of these gems couldn’t care less. Awareness and education are mandatory! I think the UI Press should take credit for how the amazing collection of pocket guides from mushrooms to raptors has evolved into one of the best series of natural history education/awareness publications I have ever seen.
Mark Müller, coauthor,
An Illustrated Guide to Iowa Prairie Plants, and author,
Prairie in Your Pocket,
Woodland in Your Pocket, and
Wetlands in Your Pocket
