For those interested in learning more about the history and ecology of the great central prairie of North America, Kent State University Press has recently published two extensively illustrated books on the prairie peninsula and the Huffman Prairie, respectively.
The Prairie Peninsula by Gary Meszaros and Guy L. Denny examines what was once a vast, predominantly tallgrass prairie that lay “between the shortgrass prairies of the west and the eastern deciduous forest region and includes the states of Illinois, Indiana, southeastern Wisconsin, and Ohio.” Of course, today much of this land has been plowed up and turned into agricultural fields, industrial sites, or cities, leaving only small patches still remaining to remind us of what was once there. It is these state and fate of these surviving remnants, as well as the history of the transition that forms the heart of this highly informative as well as visually captivating book.
Then, for those who might like a bit of aviation history with their natural history, David Nolan takes up both subjects in his Discovery and Renewal on Huffman Prairie; Where Aviation Took Wing. Focusing on one of the grasslands in the Mad River Valley of southwestern Ohio, Nolan begins with the pre-human history of this prairie then moves forward through examination of the changes made to it by Native Americans, early settlers, farmers, the Wright Brothers, flood control engineers, and the U.S. government.” He caps the entire story with the rediscovery of a small bit of a badly damaged but still surviving patch of the original prairie and recounts the current efforts being made to restore and preserve it.
