Under the Oaks at McKee Marsh

Two oaks stand tall and wide at the edge of the trail. How many decades have their branches entwined with each other and sheltered songbirds, hawks, squirrels, owls, insects, woodpeckers, native people, cattle, and now us who walk here on our hike to learn the secrets of the woods? It was not woods when these trees were younger, for their wide branches tell us they grew in the sun once. But now, when prairie fires no longer keep their feet free of trees, maples and red oaks and linden have grown up around to change this land from prairie savanna to woodland: Woodland that hosts acres of wildflowers that make my heart sing each spring.