Above the fruited ‘Plains’

Americans may know more about the threats facing the Amazon rainforest than those facing the Great Plains, among the most endangered ecosystems in the world. The vast expanse between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains is a land of bison and bighorn sheep, extinction and environmental degradation. Photographer Michael Forsberg crisscrossed the region gathering evidence to rebut the notion that the center of the United States is a wasteland. He makes his case in “The Great Plains: America’s Lingering Wild’’ (University of Chicago), an oversized work of unconventional beauty.