There is no doubt about it. Everyone who lives in the vicinity of the La Crosse River Trail knows all about the heavy snows of last winter. And all about the near record rainfalls this spring and summer.

Anyone who has read this column has likely learned that the spring snow melt alone had filled up the “frog pond” that touches our trail— even after ten years of drought. Yes, it’s been dry for that long! But not now. And, hopefully, not any more.

Anyone who even passes through our neck of the woods can still see the havoc that was wreaked upon many of our farm fields during the past few months. There are plenty of patches among those local fields that are still — this late in the year — not showing an appreciable crop of any sort.

Some places even appear too wet for weeds to grow, and that’s saying something. Corn fields that have received supplementary shots of ammonium nitrate sprang up in record time and look robust in their dark green accoutrements. But take a look at some other things that are trying to grow up this summer, and the picture isn’t quite the same.

It has become apparent on my prairie walks this summer that something along the trail is not quite normal. Many of the wild species don’t seem to be growing to their usual stature this year. As early as April I noticed the sluggish advance of the season.

Considering all the moisture that was available then, I really thought that everything would soon be catching up to normal. Now, as I look backward, I can see that my reasoning was not right. The cold air just kept coming until everything was far behind. And something is still out of kilter.

I have always thought native plants were better indicators of what was happening to our world than the crops were. The wild things, after all, have been growing here for thousands of years, while the majority of our crops have come to America under the auspices of Europeans and had their genes tinkered with, to boot.

And does the figure 1492 mean anything to you? When one lays that figure next to the dates of even the LAST Ice Age — that ended somewhere between 13,000 and 20,000 years ago — one has to see that experience must count for something. And the natives have it! Thus, when the natives don’t appear to be behaving normally, something is wrong.

During this year of high moisture levels, I can show you native grasses, native plants of the daisy family, native mints, native milkweeds — and others, I’m sure, if I really look — of less than normal stature. I’m going to blame it all on the slow spring. And, then, I’m going to go right on wondering why the moisture didn’t help!

I’m also going to go on wondering why the ground seemed to get very hard and dry just before August arrived! It didn’t seem that hot to me, and even the weather man was saying that temperatures were below normal.

Time to show the old stiff upper lip, blokes! And time to tough it out along the trail.