Ryo Kiyan
Shawangunk Grasslands National Wildlife Refuge
Maintained by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the Shawangunk Grasslands is important for grassland-dependent migratory birds. The site of a former military airfield, it is now intensively maintained to keep it from reverting to forested wetlands. Although it is thus not a "natural" landscape by most measures, it's a beautiful place that calls to mind E.O. Wilson's "biophilia" hypothesis, which claims (among other things) that we human beings have a natural preference for the savanna, because our species originated there (in Africa). The lovely purple loosestrife that you see in these photos is usually considered an invasive species. These photos were taken in 2003, when the refuge was still in its infancy, so I don't whether the loosestrife is still around.
Shawangunk Grasslands National Wildlife Refuge
Maintained by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the Shawangunk Grasslands is important for grassland-dependent migratory birds. The site of a former military airfield, it is now intensively maintained to keep it from reverting to forested wetlands. Although it is thus not a "natural" landscape by most measures, it's a beautiful place that calls to mind E.O. Wilson's "biophilia" hypothesis, which claims (among other things) that we human beings have a natural preference for the savanna, because our species originated there (in Africa). The lovely purple loosestrife that you see in these photos is usually considered an invasive species. These photos were taken in 2003, when the refuge was still in its infancy, so I don't whether the loosestrife is still around.