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Contents List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xiii Prologue: Flyover Country; Scottsbluff, NE 1 Chapter 1: Shortgrass / Semi-Desert Shrub-Steppe 9 1.1 Terra Incognita: Petrified Forest National Park, AZ 9 1.2 Can’t Get Lost: Painted Desert Wilderness Area, AZ 16 1.3 Blank: Painted Desert Wilderness Area, AZ 24 Interim: Highway 36; Northwestern KS 32 1.4 Slow Down!; Petrified Forest National Park, AZ 37 1.5 Rhythms, Cycles, Spirals; Petrified Forest National Park, AZ 51 Part I: Sun-Sitting 51 Part II: A Day 60 Interim: Sense of Place; The Red Desert, WY 78 1.6 The Quest; Pilot Rock, Painted Desert Wilderness Area, AZ 93 Interim: Dream of Place; Laramie, Wyoming and the Painted Desert, AZ 124 1.7 Beauty and Desire, Beauty and Despair; Petrified Forest National Park, AZ 130 viii contents Chapter 2: Mixedgrass 137 2.1 Wonderlands; Badlands National Park, SD 137 2.2 National Grasslands; Buffalo Gap and Comanche Nat’l Grasslands, SD and CO 146 2.3 Animal Encounters; Badlands National Park, SD 155 Part I: The Theory of Birds 155 Part II: Rewildling 161 Interim: Medora to Marmarth (With Some Dinosaur Statues in Between); SD, ND, MT, and WY 166 2.4 Interpretation and Inspiration; Badlands National Park, SD 176 Chapter 3: Tallgrass 183 3.1 Experiment and Experience, Or, How I Tried to Like a Prairie; Konza Prairie Preserve, KS 183 Interim: In Which I Discover an Island and Fall in Love with a Forest; Tongass Nat’l Forest, AK 196 3.2 Conversations with Konza; Konza Prairie Preserve, KS 206 Chapter 4: Shortgrass / Semi-Desert Shrub-Steppe 219 4.1 The Return to the Plains; Fossil Butte National Monument, WY 219 Interim: The Mapmaker’s Discipline; Fossil Butte, WY and Petrified Forest, AZ 222 4.2 Winter; Fossil Butte National Monument, WY 227 Conclusion: A Brief Meditation on Expectation and Emptiness 235 Notes 237 Bibliography 255 Index 267 ...

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