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by Damian Anthony Vraniak (Author)
This 160 page book includes over 100 color photos. It describes the process and outcomes of the author's efforts to restore 250 acres of his land that rests along one mile of shoreline of a National Wild and Scenic River in northwest Wisconsin into an abundantly biodiverse mosaic of prairie (pine barrens), oak and pine savannas, wetlands (including interconnected spring-fed ponds with five small islands, two cold water streams, and a mature mixed hardwood forest, as well as the flood plains of the streams and rivers). With the help of staff from the National Park Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, National Soil Conservation Service, WI Department of National Resources, and restoration ecologists from several universities, the author has been able to increase an endangered wood turtle population, translocate the rare Franklin ground squirrel, increase the number of native forb and grass species, as well as create excellent habitat that has invited wolf and merlin, and many other animal species, back into the area. The book is composed into four primary sections - Scenes offer descriptions and photographs of various habitats and wildlife; Songs express prosaic perspectives from at least one animal and plant species at each habitat; Stories relate the various projects the author has engaged, relevant traditional stories from the author's various ancestral tribal cultures that concern traditional relationships with native animals and plants; and closes with the Sacred, an exploration of the spiritual as voiced in Biblical scripture and on-the-ground real experience of such. Essentially, the author integrates objective science-verified approaches with the Native American (Iroquoian, Algonquian, Siouan) horticultural, foraging, hunting and fishing heritages of his ancestors to model a cohesive approach to sustainable, shared, subsistence patterns of living with the land, its waters and wildlife, that actually increases abundance and biodiversity rather than diminishes it. The narrative focuses upon a coherent and comprehensive approach to preservation, restoration, conservation and consecration of our relationship with the land, its waters and co-resident wildlife.
