Tag Archives: ice

Photo of the Week – February 24, 2010

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Ice storms can be extremely damaging to trees and powerlines.  They can severely disrupt our lives by cutting power and making travel dangerous.  Conversely, ice doesn’t really have much impact on prairies.  Prairie vegetation is dormant during the winter, so any damage to aboveground portions of grasses and wildflowers is merely cosmetic.  The next year’s growth comes from buds that are safely belowground.

Barbed-wire in western Nebraska following an ice storm. The Nature Conservancy's Kelly Tract.

Western Nebraska experienced an ice storm last weekend that left the landscape sparkling in the sunshine by the time I drove out to visit one of our prairies Monday.  I managed to find a few minutes to photograph some of the results of the storm, but I didn’t have time to get very far into the prairies.  Fortunately, I could get as far as the fencelines, which provided plenty of opportunities for photographs.

Here is one of them.

Photo of the Week – January 28, 2011

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We have a stream that runs through our Platte River Prairies that is strongly groundwater fed.  The relatively warm groundwater inputs help to keep the stream from completely freezing over.  On the day I took this photograph there was a margin of ice along the bank of the stream, but the majority of the stream was still open flowing water.

Ice patterns on the edges of a stream - The Nature Conservancy's Platte River Prairies

I was drawn to this particular patch of ice because of the layered patterns within it.  The more I stare at it, the more patterns and pictures emerge.