Beliefs inspire earth stewards

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Rick Bieber, Fields of Sinsinawa soil adviser, in October 2025 smells soil used for cover crops that dairy cows graze at Sinsinawa Mound, Wisconsin. ‘The soil should smell like the most loving person you know,’ he says. ‘It makes you feel at home. If you have life in the soil, you have this wonderful earthy blossoming community.”

Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Sister Julie Schwab, center, and Fields of Sinsinawa project manager Julia Gerlach, far right, follow in October 2025 a tenant farmer’s cows that graze on cover crops at Sinsinawa Mound, Wisconsin. The Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa host a farmer-led learning center, Fields of Sinsinawa, where farmers can learn about the importance of soil health.

Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Rick Bieber, Fields of Sinsinawa soil adviser, sits Oct. 17, 2025, in his UTV at Sinsinawa Mound, Wisconsin.

Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Dekila Chungyalpa of the Loka Initiative speaks Dec. 4, 2025, at a ‘Remembrance of Lost Species’ event at Science Hall at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The Loka Initiative, housed in the UW-Center for Healthy Minds, helps faith leaders and Indigenous culture keepers collaborate with scientists on environmental solutions.

Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Madeline Heim Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk

SINSINAWA, Wis. – Rick Bieber reached into the soil, pulled out a handful and took a sniff. Around him stretched fields of green – an unusual sight for late October in Wisconsin, when harvest is ending and farmers are preparing for winter. Oat and barley grasses, sunflowers, purple-top turnip and radish plants blew under a gentle breeze. In the soil in his palm, an earthworm wriggled.

Madeline Heim is with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. This story is a product of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, an independent reporting network based at the University of Missouri in partnership with Report for America, with major funding from the Walton Family Foundation.