Prairie restoration hopes rest with fickle native flowers
Copyright 2000 Associated Press
December 24, 2000
By LISA PEVTZOW, (Tinley Park) Daily Southtown
JOLIET, Ill. - Stands of dun-colored and olive green prairie grasses bending away from the sharp, cold wind form a sort of topographic map at the Grant Creek Prairie Nature Preserve in Will County.
One day Midewin Naturalist Tallgrass Prairie will resemble this patch of virgin prairie, one of the last remaining areas in the state that looks as it did when the first settlers came, said Eric Ulaszek, the Midewin horticulturist.
The full diversity of prairie life, an ecosystem almost as complex and rich as a rain forest, can be found at the nature preserve. Each variety of grass and wildflower flourishes according to its preferred elevation. Even the difference of a few feet will find a different clump of grasses.
"This is the model," Ulaszek said. "This is what we're aiming at."
Ulaszek estimates it could take up to 20 years to fully set in motion a process that will become more complex each year. "It eventually will look the way it once did," he said. "But not until after I'm long gone and my name has been forgotten."
Prairies once spread across 60 percent of Illinois. Slightly more than 160 acres of untouched prairie spread across the state remain. They are mainly tiny corners, most less than one acre, that didn't get turned to farm fields because their soil was too thin or wet, Ulaszek said.
Prairies in Illinois pretty much lasted until the mid-1800s when John Deere invented the self-cleaning plow. Until that time, farmers had difficulty turning over the tough prairie sod, which has become some of the most productive crop land in the world after it's been drained.
By about 1900, most of the tall grass prairie was gone. Prairie restoration has been done successfully, but only on small tracts of land, 10 acres at the most, Ulaszek said. Even naturalists restoring a few thousand acres have run into trouble, mainly because they can't grow enough seed to fill the land.
Midewin has roughly 15,000 acres of former prairie land to bring back.
"People would say to me, 'It's impossible' and throw their hands up in the air," Ulaszek said.
Midewin, a Potawatomi Indian word meaning healing, was established in 1995 by an act of Congress as the country's first national prairie. It occupies part of the site of the former Joliet Army Munitions Factory, which turned out TNT and armaments for three wars. Although cleanup of the Midewin property is proceeding, most areas are considered safe, Ulaszek said.
Because commercially available seed is expensive - more than $2,000 per acre's worth - in short supply and oftentimes from the wrong portion of the company, Midewin is growing its own in seed beds on the property.
Right now, Midewin has enough seed to plant about 60 acres in the springtime. About 70 different varieties of prairie grasses and wildflowers are under cultivation. Eventually, there will be more than 350.
Apart from the physical difficulty of growing sufficient quantities of seed is the problem of getting the species in their full diversity and in proper proportion. Too often, restored prairies grow overly tall and rank because a few types of plants take over and crowd everything else out, Ulaszek said.
Ulaszek has a general idea of what used to grow where in Midewin. By looking at the color, clay composition and moisture of the soil, he can guess the location of tallgrass prairie, wetlands and stands of trees.
He has chosen the types of plants to grow by looking at the surviving areas of virgin prairie and reading old accounts.
In April, Midewin officials will come out with a draft plan to restore the prairie.