Nature’s ability to heal…to turn destruction into fuel for its future self, to understand so intrinsically the importance of creating and recreating…never giving up…maybe that’s my connection to it. Maybe that’s why I feel so drawn to it and why I find spending time in it so healing.

In my last blog I wrote about my experience as an artist-in-residence at Pammel State Park. This was only my second experience with an AIR but its impact continues to influence my photography and the way I see and appreciate the natural world.

In April of 2022 Pammel State Park took a direct hit from an EF-4 tornado. That same tornado would continue for another 70 miles, killing 6 and carving a path of destruction through Madison, Warren and Polk counties. At that time, I had only heard about Pammel from my teenage son who would go there on weekends to hang out with friends. It would be nearly 2 more years before I visited the park and took in some of the visible scars of that tragic day.

Jessie Lowry and Amy Warnke work at the Madison County Conservation Board. I connected with Jessie, their outreach specialist, when I was first getting the Iowas99 project started. She introduced me to Amy, their Naturalist, when I visited the park to take a look and photograph Iowa’s oldest oak tree. Both had been hopeful that the tree had survived the tornado despite being stripped of its upper half and all its branches. That first spring it had shown signs of life, sprouting new small branches and leaves but by the time I paid my first visit to the tree in February of 2024, they knew it was no longer a viable living tree and would now serve as a home to woodpeckers, squirrels and other wildlife until it will eventually decay and become mulch on the forest floor.

Having not visited prior to the tornado, I could only gauge, at first, what the areas affected had looked like based on some remaining stumps scattered here and there around the campground area and shelter house. A couple weeks prior to meeting Jessie and Amy at the park, I drove out to Pammel to do a bit of exploring. In the winter I like going off trail, so I wound my way from the campground parking lot through a bit of the woods to the Northeastern corner of Backbone Trail. At first, I noticed just a few large branches and a downed tree here and there but as I found the actual trail the scene stopped me cold. Apocalyptic…I had heard someone on the news use that term and I didn’t completely comprehend it until that moment. Nearly two years later in the dead of winter you couldn’t help but gasp at the sight of so many splintered, broken and piled up trees.

When I arrived in mid-April it was exciting to see the effects of spring. More cleanup had taken place throughout the park and many of the trees were beginning to leaf out. A stark contrast to my previous visits. It wasn’t until day five of my residency that I made my way back to the sight of the most severe damage. The area still looked ravaged but with the season came a feeling of healing and resilience. A few of the stripped-down tree trunks were full of small, leaf filled branches. Odd looking but encouraging. Downed trees were already decaying and around them grew green grass and an abundance of woodland phlox, anemones and tiny spring beauty plants, adding a touch of magic to the scene. I couldn’t help but feel a sense of awe at it all. The beautiful mess in front of me made me hopeful.