An oak savanna is land between a forest and prairie, with some trees but enough light for a wide variety of plants to flourish on the ground, creating an ideal habitat for great diversity of life. The Brookfield Oak Savanna preserves some of the variety people saw, heard, and smelled in these habitats many years ago. In hot summer, blooms of pink milkweed, yellow black-eyed Susans, and lavender beebalm paint the landscape and provide hiding places for predators and prey. In spring, mayapple, trillium, trout lily, and spring beauty blanket the ground. Migrating birds pause here to recuperate during their journeys, native plants attract more native animals, winter reveals tracks in the snow, a warm late winter day may bring a mourning cloak butterfly, and cooler fall weather brings goldenrods and asters that provide nectar for migrating monarch butterflies.