7.25.2026
thoughts on belwin conservancy

when we lived out east, i’d often drive up to see my sister in maine from massachusetts. i’d drive all the back roads there, lush with moss and old buildings, and when you’d finally get to the great expanse of the ocean, it just would open up everything and make me feel both small in a giant world, and fully free. 

minnesota, on the other hand, held different feelings for me. when i lived here when i was younger, i did a lot of drinking and hanging out in south minneapolis and i always felt stuck. the midwest is big, traveling from one place to another takes a long time, it felt like you were always waiting to get out. 

after moving back to minnesota, we eventually landed in stillwater last fall, a tourist town along the st croix river (my favorite river of all time). i began to spend more time wandering around at a @belwin, a prairie restoration conservancy down the road with quiet trails for when town was too busy to walk the dogs. it’s been a godsend to have so close.

what i began to love about prairies is that, from a distance, they can seem almost simple. but beneath the surface they're incredibly complex. much of a prairie plant's life exists underground, with deep root systems that support an incredible diversity of life above ground. 

i've felt like i've been running on empty for years, battling burnout and depression. this place was offering me the opportunity to take my time and putz and think about the butterflies and the birds and the grass blowing in the breeze.

i’ve been watching a lot of pbs documentaries about minnesota, and i imagine that walking at belwin offers a glimpse of what much of this landscape looked like before settlement. minnesota was once home to roughly 18 million acres of native prairie. today, just over 1% remains. it's hard to walk there now without imagining miles of prairie stretching in every direction. i imagine it would make you feel as small as the ocean does.

this morning we stopped by belwin's bison overlook. seeing them from the observation deck literally took my breath away. they weren’t very close up, but just seeing these big, beautiful animals in what was their native habitat, doing their dang thing, made me pause. while bison once numbered in the tens of millions across north america, fewer than 30,000 remain in conservation herds today. this is a big improvement from what it was even decades ago, but it’s still devastatingly sad to think how many more there were. 

i realized recently that minnesota’s officially the place i’ve lived the longest in my life. i’ve been searching for home since i was 12, and i don’t know that i expected minnesota to feel that way for me. being back has really shifted my perspective. i’m glad i gave myself the opportunity to have my mind changed, and to build a deeper connection with a place that sits a little quieter. knowing what was lost helped me to appreciate what was present.