70 Nebraskaland • July 2019
THE LAST STOP
By Justin Haag
ROLLING WITH THE CHANGES
As cliché as the saying may be, it is true that you don't
know what you've got until it's gone.
When I started getting serious about wildlife photography
about a decade ago, there were so many deer in northwestern
Nebraska that I became choosy when pushing the shutter
button. Then, not long after, an outbreak of epizootic
hemorrhagic disease during a period of drought blasted the
population, and I began eagerly snapping a photo of every
deer I saw. Since then, the population has been rebounding,
and I am back to being a little more selective. Yet, because
of experience, I surely give more appreciation to every
encounter I have with those whitetails and muleys.
A botanist friend spoke at a rec ent seminar about his
flora surveys in the Pine Ridge, dating back to the 1980s.
In the early days, he said, there was so much dwarf juniper
(Juniperis communis) on the landscape it was nearly
impossible to document it all. Then, catastrophic wildfires
roared across much of the Pine Ridge in 2006 and 2012. Along
with ponderosa pine, it is still hard to find that coniferous
evergreen in those expansive burned areas.
I often think of species such as these as I encounter a flock
of wild turkeys. Similar to so many animals, Euro-American
settlement of the early 1900s pushed them to extirpation in
our region. Just in my lifetime, they have gone from being a
pretty rare sight to frequent in most places. Reintroduction
and conservation efforts have been incredibly successful,
and now the big birds are highly abundant throughout
Nebraska and beyond.
You never know what nature has in store, so I will keep
photographing those wild turkeys. Moreover, you just never
know when something unusual – such as a fawn white-
tailed deer joining the party in the above photo from Sioux
County – might play out while I am in the process. I was
certainly glad I took the time to stop and observe what
appeared to be just another flock of a common species as the
playful youngster emerged from the background.
Whether we are talking species populations over many
years, or chance encounters over moments, the scene may
change quickly. Keep your eyes open and your camera ready.