RE: NANFA-- mmmmm...marsh

Crail, Todd (tcrail_at_northshores.com)
Tue, 31 Dec 2002 15:01:47 -0500

Thanks for the link Ray, very interesting reading. So much for "your" glacier leaving "your" state's all neat and interesting features and coming over to my neck of the woods to just flatten everything out ;) lol

It really is interesting when you get the natural history information about your locale, the comings and going, even just the recent stuff like the last glacial age. What amazes me even more (and of this I was seriously guilty for a long long time) is that all this information is right here in front of us, and we just don't look for it, or don't know where to look for it. But it's in books and on the Internet and everywhere around us... We just have to look for it.

Toledo, for example, has this terrible self image that results in excessive pollution and general apathy toward the region's remaining natural history (even tho most of it is still in tact in small biological reserves) because all they see is what man has done, not what nature had intended. I can't tell you how many times I've asked someone to please not throw their trash into the river or stream and I get the reply "It's allready polluted. I'm not hurting anything." Heck, the mayor, after a 4th of July downtown celebration had the city crews take leaf blowers and blow all the garbage into the river instead of picking it up. I'm sure many others could share similar stories.

However, when one gets the opportunity to get people into the middle of interesting, yet unobvious natural history... It's always delightful that I finally took the time to read up on this area's natural history, and have the chance to share that with them. All those "stupid sand dunes" out in Spencer Township become something magical, a part of some piece of life that folks were blind to, but now see... Then I go show them everything that lives there. A change in perspective and attitude runs through the group. People learn to work with, not against, what feeds, respirates, and hydrates them... Oh, and what exactly was so special about that one organism that stopped the bulldozers from moving that particular piece of ground, despite every well intentioned (perhaps misguided?) effort of the developer who lost this particular battle :)

I'd encourage you all, if you've not already, to really get familiar with the geologic past of your locale, and then fill in the blanks with the current living organisms that can demonstrate how special *every* locale is :)

Todd
-----Original Message-----
From: R. W. Wolff
Sent: Tue 12/31/2002 2:39 AM
To: nanfa_at_aquaria.net
Cc:
Subject: Re: NANFA-- mmmmm...marsh


> ~500,000 Acres sound about right? Check out the KANKAKEE - IROQUOIS
segment.
I would hate to brag, but the marsh here is roughly over a million acres. I
get this ( since no good information on it is out there) sum from the size
of Glacial Lake Wisconsin. The marsh is pretty much the same outline as
Glacial Lake Wisconsin and was formed in the lake bed. To get acres from
miles multiply 640. The square miles of Glacial Lake Wisconsin is 1,825. To
be fair, the entire area is not one solid marsh. Many interesting land forms
and water bodies are found in this area. Being that glaciers never touched
this area, ancient formations still stand in pretty much the same way they
did pre glaciation. Doing this another unscientific way comes up with
another number. The area is often described as "rougly twice the size of
Milwaukee county". Milwaukee county is 1,460 square miles. In acres that is
934,400 acres. What I call the marsh goes under many names, the most
commonly used is " The Great Swamp of Wisconsin". Doing searches on this
turns up little of nothing.

To learn more click:
http://www.wisconline.com/wisconsin/geoprovinces/centralplain.html



Ray
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/ nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the word
/ subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject) of an email to
/ nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to
/ nanfa-digest-request_at_aquaria.net instead.
/ For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org