Wild River

On Saturday I went to a meeting of my Master Naturalist group.  We met at Wild River State Park which is slightly north and about an hour east from my house.  Kacee, the naturalist there, took us out in the prairie.  We identified species and collected seeds.  Ragweed was the most common plant at the edge of the prairie.  Once we got into it deeper we found Indian grass, Canadian rye grass, Big blue stem, little blue stem grass, whorled milkweed, prairie star, ground cherries (delicious - they taste like oranges), prairie clover, penstemon and goldenrod. The weather on Saturday was cool and very windy.  Once we got deeper into the prairie, the wind moved the big bluestem grasses around us.  For a while all I could see was grass and sky. This prairie, stuck between the northern pine forest and the southern hardwood forest, was formed by the sand left during glacier times when the St. Croix was a mile in width.  I filled my bucket with seeds so they could improve the prairie.  I also filled the pocket of my jeans with seeds so I could improve my little prairie in the yard on the east side of the house.  After that we had a group picnic.  At one point Wild River looked into getting a buffalo herd.  Unfortunately they don't have quite enough acres of prairie to keep a genetically healthy buffalo herd.  I understand a minimum of 68 buffalo are needed to keep the herd from interbreeding too much.  The prairie at Wild River is not quite large enough to keep 68 buffalo.  That would be something to see though.  Item to add to bucket list - see a herd of buffalo running.