Rooted in Stone. Rising toward light.
Meditation
Stand upon the stone and feel its age beneath you.
Breathe in patience, breathe out hurry.
You are part of this enduring creation — steady, shaped, and renewed by time.
Conserving the Niagara Escarpment
The Niagara Escarpment stretches in a wide arc from eastern Wisconsin through Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, across Ontario, Canada, and on through the Niagara Falls in New York. The rock forming the escarpment was originally deposited as lime mud on an ancient sea floor about 430 million years ago. What remains is the result of uplift, weathering, and erosion. The escarpment is home to over 240 different rare, threatened, or endangered plant and animal species, including white cedar trees that are more than 1,000 years old. It is also an important source of groundwater recharge. However, the natural cracks in the rocks and the thin layer of soil covering it leave the groundwater very vulnerable to contaminants. The escarpment is a Statewide Critical Natural Resource per priority study area by Natural Heritage Conservation Program and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Many highly specialized species, such as rare terrestrial snails, are found in these microhabitats and some of them may occur in few or no other locations in the world (WDNR, 2002).
The portion of the escarpment on CSA property is surrounded by oak woodlands.
During your visit keep an eye out for stinging nettle. Brushing up against it with bare skin will cause a stinging/burning session followed by a short-lasting itchy rash. Stinging nettle is a native plant to the area and serves as a “host plant” for four different native species of butterfly: Question mark (Polygonia interrogationis), Eastern comma (Polygonia comma), Milbert's tortoiseshell (Nymphalis milberti), and Red admiral (Vanessa Atalanta).
