An Iowa couple bought 40 acres choked with invasive plants; after discovering rare ecosystems beneath the overgrowth, they restored the land into wetlands attracting sandhill cranes

• What appeared to be a neglected field in Madison County, Iowa, concealed remnants of rare native ecosystems.
• When John and Sheri Paule bought the first 40 acres of their property, its hillsides were overrun with invasive vegetation, leaving little indication of what the landscape might once have been.
• Surviving bur oak trees, however, offered a clue that the land could have supported an oak savanna.