Photographer tells of love for the plains

Forsberg, who was presenting the inaugural installment of the Mari Sandoz High Plains Heritage Society’s Pilster Great Plains Lecture Series, was joined by South Dakota rancher and author Dan O’Brien for the presentation. Forsberg and O’Brien recently collaborated on a book, “Great Plains: America’s Lingering Wild.”

O’Brien read one of his essays from the book, which helped illustrate the amount of time, patience and skill involved in photographing wildlife. He told of how Forsberg prompted him to get on hands and knees act like a mountain lion in setting up remote cameras and lighting in the southern Black Hills of South Dakota. Forsberg later showed the photos of the mountain lion that were captured from the set-up.

In the past four years, the photographer has shot 30,000 images while logging 100,000 miles on the road six months each year. He also went through “two wheel bearing assemblies, three sets of tires and 1 ½ Suburbans,” he said.

The primary focus of Forsberg’s presentation was conservation. To make his point about the decimation of species since westward expansion of the United States, he showed historical photographs – one of which was an early 19^th century image of “U.S. Biological Survey” spelled out with 1,600 dead prairie dogs.

Forsberg said goals of the “Great Plains” book were to study the ecosystem and to build an appreciation for the plains from people who haven’t witnessed its beauty. He said people have a “perception versus reality” problem in the Great Plains, a massive area stretching from Canada to Texas that he noted would be the 10^th largest country in the world if sovereign.

“It doesn’t knock your socks off at a glance. It’s not the Colorado Rockies, it’s not the Pacific Northwest, it’s not the Grand Canyon. It’s a place that you can’t appreciate from a roadside pullout in five minutes,” he said. “It’s a place you have to linger for hours, for days, for months, for years or a lifetime. Then it’s like getting to know an old friend. The more time you spend, the more layers you peel away, the more beauty you see. That’s what the Great Plains is, and it can be every bit as remarkable as all these other places.”

Forsberg showed a series of maps to illustrate the development of the Great Plains. Despite the many challenges facing today’s Great Plains ecosystem, Forsberg said there’s hope.

“All is not yet lost on the prairie. There is still that lingering wild that survives here and the idea of conservation is still alive and well,” he said. “Conservation efforts are growing, and it’s not coming from some government directive on high. It’s a movement coming from people as firmly rooted in the soil as the prairie is itself.”

Forsberg said his photography has evolved from something he once did for himself to something he now does for his children and future generations.

“I care a lot about this place, I care a lot about the people who make their life on the land here, and I care a lot about the wildlife and our natural heritage,” Forsberg said.

Forsberg provided live narration for a 12-minute slideshow of his stunning photographs to finish the presentation. An exhibit of Forsberg’s work is on display in the Mari Sandoz High Plains Heritage Center at Chadron State.

In introducing Forsberg, Sandoz Society president Lynn Roper of Lincoln used the title of a Sandoz book.

“We can’t think of a better way to start this series off than with someone who really has ‘Love Song to the Plains’ in his heart,” she said.

The lecture series, which will feature an event annually, is funded from an endowment created from the sale of 3,731 acres of Dawes County ranchland that Esther Pilster donated to the Sandoz Society in 2006.