Dave Monk, The Prairie Monk, has been preserving Illinois prairie since 1969. Please help him continue with this vital endeavor!
0 Comments
We are encouraged to plant trees on this Earth and Arbor week and that is an admirable task that has been and will continue to be a public ambition forever. But do regional citizens fully realize that their county was once 94% prairie before it was drained for agriculture. The forests were few and mostly found in big groves along rivers and on moraines where drainage was adequate for trees. I would like to put forth a plea for prairie preservation too. The state Illinois has preserved less than 0.01% of the remnant (10,000 year old prairie with intact soils and micro-organisms) that once occupied the State of Illinois which was once two thirds prairie. In Champaign County the figure is probably less than that. Theoretically the ”Forest” Preserve should be a “Prairie” Preserve” or to accommodate both habitats, a “Nature” Preserve. The preservation and planting of trees is admirable for environmental and aesthetic reasons but there should be a balance between the preservation of trees and prairie according to their historic relevance. We owe it to the world to maintain both ecosystems. Remnant care The forest genome is not in jepardy but remnant prairies are almost non-existent. It behooves us to seek out the few active and abandoned rail bed corridors, cemeteries and vacant lots where remnant ecosystems have survived and ensure their preservation. These sites are often rare and disturbed by invasive plants and railbed and farm chemicals. But they are often the only heritage biology remnants for locals, visitors and scientists to work with. Remnant sites can be upgraded by management, including, prescribed burning, the removal of invasive species and by protection from zealous mowing. There is room for volunteer action in this scenio and we hope you consider that involvement as you consider Earth Week and Arbor Day inspiration for the years ahead. Reconstruction prairies are helpful but they do not have the biodiversity of original prairies A State or National Linear Prairie Parkway As citizens become increasingly educated and tour oriented much of our regional income in the future will be from tourism by people who are interested in who and what we are and what our heritage ecosystems is. It is possible to envisage a state or national linear park where we would take north or south bound interested visitors off I 57 atKankakee or Rantoul to gain access to a relatively biodiverse regional prairie corridor I will start from the northern end but the reverse is possible. At Kankakee I would have visitors go east and west to experience post glacial sand dune prairies then have them drive south on Rt 45 with the provision of windshield information at annotated drop-off locations that would explain railroad, roadside and cemetery prairies on a modestly travelled highway. At Loda the visitors could visit a cemetery reserve-grave-site prairie and a nine acre restoration buffer prairie that has been planted to protect the cemetery prairie. Going south the road-side rail-side prairie could visit the Paxton “Prospect “Cemetery. Both cemertewries would have to be handled with respect or not at all. The Windshield Prairie trail would continue south from Paxton to Rantoul paralleling a retired but intact concrete road and an abandoned inter urban right of way. That ten miles is also paralleled by a planned second leg of a dual highway that was never built because it was obsoleted by the creation of Interstate 57 to the west. Those corridors provide an extra space for the prairie remnants and relatively undisturbed soils that exist on these rights of way The retired concrete road would provide a rest stop for a prairie bike and hike corridor and also for the parking of vehicles although vehicles would not be allowed to travel on the corridor. The Windshield Trail would extend south from a high Paxton moraine across the outwash plain creek draining the Paxton Moraine. The town of Ludlow, at that at the junction of the Paxton Moraine with the Bloomington Moraine provides the unique example of a small railroad town and elevator. Ludlow was once the terminus of the progress south of the Illinois Central railroad as it moved south in the 1850s The trail travels south across a typical cross transect of the Bloomington continental glacial moraine with palmate outwash plain creeks. A side trip to the east and west would augment the trail with contour farming and rolling terranes that are indictors of palmate drainage. South of the section road north of the triangle created by the cemetery circumvention there is a 9 acre Pope prairie. Part of that 9 acres is remnant and part is restoration prairie. An abandoned interurban prairie to the west of the old Rt 45 provides much of the seed for restoration of the portion of the 9 acres that was a gravel pit that provided glacial till road-pack gravel. The site provided bill board line of site as vehicles moved around the cemetery. The bill boards were removed when traffic moved to I 57. An abandoned interurban prairie to the west of the old Rt 45 provides much of the seed for restoration of the portion of the 9 acres that was a gravel pit that provided glacial till road-pack gravel. The site provided bill board line of site as vehicles moved around the cemetery. The bill boards were removed when traffic moved to I 57. The unused dual highway leg to the east was planted to Ash trees that have succumbed to the Emerald Ash borer. As more light reaches the soil prairie species are returning to the site. That augments the 9 acre Pope prairie, Prairie species have also populated the adjacent modern Rt 45 roadside. The Pope Prairie site could be an anchor for the Windshield prairie As the modern Rt 45 moves around the active Maple Wood cemetery there is 6 acres of potential reconstruction prairie that Is adjacent to the south end of the 9 acre Pope prairie that could be a southern anchor for the Windshield Prairie Trail more practical site for visitation whereas the Pop prairie is more a conservation site That area could be an educational retreat and visitor center or a simple kiosk. Heartland Pathways would like to buy that acreage. An illustrated sequence of soil profiles and the species response from wet to dry could be a feature of a visitor facility The next six acres to south has been acquired for cemetery expansion and planted to prairie. The cemetery itself is active but also historic but it is not necessarily accessible to tourist traffic. The Old Rt 45 runs behind and separate from the cemetery. The triangle on the southern side of the cemetery created by the cemetery-circumventing modern RT 45 is a vacant swampy wetland reminiscent of the outwash plain flatlands that had to be drained before settlers could engage in agriculture. A wetland reconstruction prairie could be innovative at this site. Once again that would involve purchase of the site. The Windshield Prairie trail would end immediately north of Rantoul where an abandoned east west rail-bed has already been converted to a popular urban hike and bike trail. A side trip to this trail could give interested parties an idea of what a Windshield Prairie corridor to the north could look like with reservations for the natural history involved .The urban trail also places stress on the need for trail connectivity and perhaps even eastern extension to Penfield where the Grand Prairie Friends has preserved another mile of remnant prairie. Biologically it is desirable to have biological sites connect. Access and Egress
The Windshield Prairie visit can exit or access the trail from I 57 at Rantoul OR continue south to Urbana on Rt 45 and west on I 74 to I 57 west of Champaign. A retired Chanute Air Force Base may be of interest to some travelers interested in the successful revitalization of that base as a community and commercial entity. There are also restoration and landscape activities on the base. A respected Lincoln’s Challenge for young people with challenges is located at the base and it may be interested in using the Windshield Prairie and other natural history sites as a cooperative work experience. Preservation of remnant sites requires a difficult form of volunteerism. It includes endless and sometimes frustrating planning, negotiation and maintenance. It also begs for a certain amount of knowledge about prairies in this region. We look forward on this Earth and Arbor Week for those who might be willing to dream and work to preserve remnant prairies in this and other situations.
LINK
From White Heath west to Clinton a potential trail extends for twenty miles. This corridor is not available for use at this time but the rail trail political climate has been successful, as with the Kickapoo trail, and makes utilization of this bed an attractive project.
Hi folks. It is spring and the Natural Areas Study Group went to Forest Glen in Vermilion County to commune with the skunk cabbage which is one of the earliest plants to appear in spring. Its habitat is a seep that is wet. The seep is nestled in a forest on the banks of Willow Creek that runs into the Vermilion River.
Site of relocated Pocket Prairie at the 2nd St Detention Basin with a pollinator plot in fore ground.
Dave Monk (The Prairie Monk) takes a group on a National Pollinator Week Walk at Meadowbrook Park3/27/2019 The Doris Westfall prairie at Forest Glen is d diverse reconstruction prairie. Part of the prairie has been burned recently. The stand lets you view the prairie. Much of the seed for this came from a railroad right of way near Oakwood where a wide rail trail may eliminate that prairie for all time. Let’s save the prairie by asking hikers and bikers to use the adjacent road.
|
AuthorDavid Monk The Prairie Monk is engaged in prairie preservation in East Central Illinois where the soils are rich and little heritage ecology remains in a state that was once two thirds prairie.
Archives
September 2021
Categories
All
|