Bicentennial Idea...

Develop a Prairie

by Barbara Peterson, Commissioner Golfview Hills Park District

Man's ideas as to best land usage have undergone heavy scrutiny and much change in recent years. Many people are beginning to realize that there is only so much land. Once a natural site is used for other purposes, it never again will be what it once was, and some day, we'll run out of open land if we don't change our ways.

This rising awareness has prompted many persons and organizations across our state to preserve and in many instances restore land to its original prairie status. Prairies are even being developed from scratch on "disturbed" land. Prairie lands once covered 30,000 square miles of Illinois, but then it was cultivated or used for housing or grazing to the point where the prairie plants disappeared.

The restoration of a relatively small parcel of land as prairie and subsequent use of this land for purposes of education and enjoyment is certainly a possible recreational project for a park district to consider, even though not within the usual recreational parameters. A project such as this requires and involves many volunteers during the initial restoration period but little money. Once the prairie establishes itself, maintenance becomes relatively simple.

A small refuge ... a "mini-prairie" still containing a good representation of prairie plants —is of a size easily workable for both volunteers and also visiting groups. We have, for the most part, lost the vast sweeps of prairie that once covered the state. We have now, officially, only 1/100 of 1% of original prairie with preserved status, but even a small area, preserved and enjoyed, readily accessible to district residents, is better than nothing at all.

One can think of a prairie as sort of a large, disorganized perennial garden filled with colorful flowering plants and attractive grasses. As the warm season progresses, the look of this bit of prairie changes, in color and in height, just as a flower garden changes from spring to summer to fall.

Most prairie plants are little known to our state's residents. They do not do well in domestic gardens, and grow only in certain, undisturbed places such as country graveyards, along roadsides and railroads where chemical plant killers haven't been used, or on tax delinquent land still undeveloped for various reasons. Emphasis has mostly been on woodland and the wildflowers that grow there, and most of us do not have much of a concept of what a prairie is really like. The word "prairie" has been misused to the point where many of us think of it as a weedy, overgrown place or of just a sweep of unmowed grasses.

Chairman, Mrs. Robert Potthoff, right, points out Butterfly Weed being grown from seed in a nearby member's greenhouse (part of the current prairie enrichment program) to Sue Paulson, Hinsdale Central High School Ecology Club member. Photography credit: Dave Harmet

The Golfview Hills Park District is now involved in a small prairie project, restoring some recently acquired acreage in a residential area. The original land use plans for the property certainly did not include prairie preservation. The land had been used for years by children for tunnel digging, tree house building, mini-bike riding, and was a receptacle for trash from passing cars and grass clippings from the neighborhood. It has low places that filled with water each spring. It was a mess.

First inclination was to fill the low spots, level it, plant grass and keep it mowed until some specific park-district-type need presented itself. However, the colorful flowering plants growing among the more common, weedy ones attracted the attention of several local residents. Finally, the Golfview Hills Woman's Club, with the sanction of the Park District, established a prairie committee to see what could be done.

The local junior high school science teacher whose specialty was prairie plants, immediately became interested and developed the first lists of what was growing there. He discovered one almost extinct plant immediately and soon thereafter, volunteers working at identification, discovered another, almost as rare!

After an initial spring cleanup day, regular weekly halfday work mornings were scheduled by the Woman's Club for continuing cleanup, weed removal and for identifying plants as they came into bloom. None of the volunteers had any botanical training, but with a few books from the local library and help from the science teacher and local forest preserve rangers, a list of some 50 native prairie plants was discovered.

Illinois Parks and Recreation July/August, 1975

A Hinsdale Central High School Ecology Club member assists Prairie Committee members in cutting out sandbar willow and carefully paitring row surfaces with woody plant killer. Photography credit; Dave Harmet of some 50 native prairie plants was developed.

Dr. Robert F. Betz, leading North American authority on natural prairie and a professor of biology at North Eastern Illinois University, was invited to visit the site.

He explained that it appeared that the land had been disturbed (plowed, probably) in the late 1800's, inviting weedy growth, but that the prairie plants had prevailed, and with a little help from volunteers, within 10 years, would again be a typical piece of Illinois prairie. A general plan for restoration and enrichment was outlined. Seeds from certain prairie plants were gathered from several different prairies.

The seeds were designated for two different operations: some would be broadcast over the land at the appropriate time in late spring; others would be planted in a greenhouse owned by a nearby resident, later to be transplanted to the prairie site. Junior high science classes participated in a similar seed gathering program, which would also be transplanted on the prairie.

Paths have been established through the prairie and informal tours are given by volunteers to District residents.

You are probably thinking, "That's all well and good if you happen to have a piece of land like that, but . . ."

There are several alternatives. If the park district does not own a site that already has possibilities but would like to acquire more land, think in terms of surveying the area to see if such land exists. Talk to your local forest preserve rangers. They are knowledgeable, observant persons, and often have answers.

If your district owns undeveloped land, you might consider developing a prairie from scratch. This is being done now at the Morton Arboretum, and their staff personnel are a good resource. At "The Landing," an environmental education center in the Fullersburg Woods Nature Preserve, a DuPage County Forest Preserve project just north of Hinsdale, a prairie 20 feet was successfully begun last spring.

Developing a prairie is an appropriate and exciting way to use Illinois land, and especially meaningful as our bicentennial year approaches. Illinois' wealth as a state is attributed to the richness of the prairie soil. To create and/or restore and preserve a bit of this prairie could be a very special park district activity involving many persons who otherwise would never know of Illinois' heritage or have a chance to experience a bit of it firsthand.

Illinois Parks and Recreation July/August, 1975