In The Field
Old Milwaukee
The Ecological Society of America annual meeting begins today in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Milwaukee is best known for beer brewing, Harley Davidson motorcycles and its rust-belt decline. I decided to skip the whole question of Milwaukee as a city and examine Milwaukee as an ecosystem. I began by joining a field trip that visited a forest and a prairie, both remnants of ecosystems that once covered the area in a fluctuating mosaic controlled by fire.