A group of colleagues created this Wheel of the Year for the introductory edition of the Yahara Watershed Journal in 1997. They spent an enjoyable afternoon, first brainstorming a long list of ideas to illustrate the rhythm of life through the seasons and then selecting a representative set to add to the wheel. A map of the watershed, showing its signature chain of lakes and rivers, grounds the center. The images in the first ring around the center show some of the activities of plants, animals, and people in each season. The lakes have seasons of open and frozen water; the narrow second ring of the wheel is white during the time of surface ice, black during open water, and shaded during the variable times of ice-in an ice-out. The average daily temperatures ranging between 16° and 72°F, are graphed as the dotted line weaving through the two outermost rings.
