Water resource development and management

In a sandy, riverside location in Wisconsin, my family has a farm, once abandoned by a previous owner because it would not produce much corn. By the time we bought it – for a pittance – only a few remnants of white pine remained from the magnificent stands made famous by the Paul Bunyan legend. In this part of Wisconsin the pines were, even originally, restricted only to patches of the better soil, and the variability of the glacial topography has resulted in an interesting mixture of prairie marsh, swamp woodlot, and sand hill.

We did not acquire this farm because it had great potential for growing crops. Rather we were interested in the variety of ecologic and topographic types, which, even within the confines of our property, represented a condensed version of the many different types of land in the Wisconsin countryside. The farm also has a very peculiar aesthetic and historical interest. Marquette’s canoes once slipped quietly past our favorite fishing hole on the river; passenger pigeons once roosted in our great oaks; and the few remaining white pines silhouetted against the sky-glow of evening made one think of the Round River and the Blue Ox.