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"The
richest values of wilderness lie not in the days of Daniel Boone, nor
even in the present, but rather in the future." -Aldo Leopold
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The History of Restoring Prairies The word restoration, as defined by the Society for Ecological Restoration, includes: |
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Natural Area Management |
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Reconstruction |
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Rehabilitation |
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Natural area management refers to managing and preserving natural prairie flora and fauna on an existing prairie. Reconstruction refers to planting prairie on plowed ground or other non-prairie parcels, such as UIS'. Rehabilitation refers to nursing a degraded prairie back to good health. Some refer to prairie restoration as prairie simulation, as it is probably impossible to recreate something as complex as a prairie on a small scale. To actually do so would require many thousands of acres and the reintroduction of hundreds of species. Prairie restoration is more than preserving our native wildflowers and grasses. It encompasses saving all forms of life associated with the prairie ecosystem. It represents the foundation and stability of our country's natural history. There have been many attempts to restore prairies, especially in Illinois. For example, the Schulenberg Prairie at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, which covers over 100 acres. Another diverse restoration is the Doris L. Westfall Prairie in Forest Glen Preserve. Over 120 species of prairie plants native to Vermilion County are found in this site, and most have been introduced through repeated seeding (See Tallgrass Prairies in Illinois). Native plants are also appearing in small garden borders and small scale restorations, such as UIS. Most of these contain only a small percentage of plant species found on high quality prairies. Small areas are important in creating new interest in the natural history of the prairie ecosystem. However, the greater the diversity of plants we restore, the greater the return of all forms of life associated with the prairie. Restoring a prairie is a long term project; whether it is one acre or a thousand acres. The success and reward of a prairie restoration is proportional to the effort and time spent. UIS Prairie Restoration Project In 1991, the UIS administration awarded an acre of campus farmland to Students Allied for a Greener Earth (SAGE) for the prairie restoration site. Since then, numerous plantings of seed and seedlings have been performed. In 1994, SAGE requested additional land to expand the original site to three acres in order to allow more biodiversity. The planning and management of the restoration site involved many essential factors including:
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