SIOUX CITY, Iowa – Catching the spirit and wildness of the Great Plains will be discussed in “Great Plains: America’s Lingering Wild,” featuring photographer Michael Forsberg and wildlife biologist Dan O’Brien at 7:30 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 26, in the Saint Francis Center at Briar Cliff University.

This free public event is sponsored by Briar Cliff’s Center for Prairie Studies, the Loess Hills Audubon Society, the Gilchrist Foundation and the Sioux City Camera Club.

“Forsberg has focused much of his work on North America’s Great Plains, once one of the greatest grassland ecosystems on Earth,” said Brian T. Hazlett, Ph.D., director of BCU’s Center for Prairie Studies. “His goal is to capture the wild spirit of the native creatures and landscapes that still survive in these wide-open spaces,” said Dr. Hazlett, who also serves as director of environmental science and professor of biology at Briar Cliff. 

Forsberg’s second book Great Plains – America’s Lingering Wild, which contains essays by O’Brien, explores the wildlife, challenges of habitats and conservation on the Great Plains from Canada to Mexico.  

Known as one of the most celebrated falconers in America today, O’Brien played a primary role in the restoration of peregrine falcons in the Rocky Mountains in the 1970s and 80s. “He is one of the most powerful literary voices on the Plains,” Dr. Hazlett said of O’Brien, who has authored five novels. “His two-volume memoirs on falconry, The Rites of Autumn and Equinox, are an intimate and revealing exploration of his life-long search for Plains wildness.”

Briar Cliff University is a Catholic institution with an enrollment of more than 1,150 students from 29 states and 11 other countries. Students are educated in the Franciscan tradition of excellence in the liberal arts and career preparation in an environment of care, compassion and service. For more information, please visit briarcliff.edu.

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