From 2005-2009, Mike traveled 100,000 miles, crisscrossing the Great Plains from Canada to Mexico, working on a book called Great Plains: America’s Lingering Wild. The goal of the book project was to build an appreciation of what many from the outside looking in consider “flyover country.” The book explores the wildlife, habitats, and conservation challenges in the heart of the continent. The Great Plains - America's Lingering Wild exhibition opened at Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska, in February 2010. It has since traveled to many locations across the United States.
The documentary film Great Plains - America’s Lingering Wild premiered on Nebraska's PBS station in November 2012 and went national with PBS in September 2013. In it, Mike explores the remaining wildness of the Great Plains, showcasing stunning imagery and featuring people dedicated to conserving it.
When I am photographing prairie wildlife, I often feel like I am chasing ghosts. Photographing the survivors of prairie species whose numbers have been decimated or all but eliminated from these wide-open spaces. Even on the Platte River, where 500,000 sandhill cranes and millions of ducks and geese find critical refuge each spring, there is the underlying reality that only a fraction of the habitat remains that existed a century ago. –Michael Forsberg
Today, Mike continues to be a Great Plains drifter, capturing and telling stories of its lingering wild.
