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There is a growing interest in preserving and restoring the native ecosystems of the midwestern tall grass prairie region. We've selected some of the most interesting resources on the web for listing here. |
The Northern Prairie Science Center maintains a web site with information about prairie ecology, especially game management. Chicago region restorationists may be interested in their Savanna Restoration Bibliography.
Kenneth C. Robertson, a botanist with the Illinois Natural history survey and co-author of "Illinois Wilds" (Phoenix Press) has net-pubished some of his prairie photography. He's written about tall grass prairie, describing the ecological variation on the rich grasslands that formerly covered most of Illinois.
Another sand prairie and oak savanna region is located near Toledo, Ohio. The University of Toledo hosts a site with information about the efforts being made to preserve and enhance this ecosystem. The site includes photos of lupine and puccoon, and Karner Blue butterfly.
Hundreds of miles to the west in Nebraska the largest sand region in North America remains a sparsely populated region with a ranching economy. Northwest Nebraska's sand hills region is probably most often noticed by transcontinental air travelers as a "black hole" in the pervasive outdoor lighting that covers most of the U.S. east of the Rockies. The University of Nebraska at Lincoln hosts The Heritage of the Nebraska Sandhills an interesting and comprehensive multimedia guide to the region including its natural history. Be sure to check out the animation explaining of the hydrology of sand regions--its key to understanding sand country ecology.
The Indiana Dunes is located about thirty miles to the north of the Kankakee sand region. The lakeside dunes are much larger, and the weather is more moderate due to the influence of Lake Michigan, but many of the same plants and animals live there. Save the Dunes, one of America's longest running environmental groups, hosts a site for the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.
Chapter 6 of "The Changing Illinois Environment" (1994) is devoted to Prairies.
The Necedah NWR in Necedah, Wisconsin is a preserve in central Wisconsin's sand country with several rare sand savanna and sand prairie species.
TNC's Oak Openings Preserve in Ohio.
TNC's Weaver Dune Scientific and Natural Area near the Mississippi River in Wabasha Co. Minnesota.
Sand Ridge State Forest, near Peoria, Illinois.
A checklist of vertebrate animals from the Upper Mississippi Wildlife Refuge near Winona, Minnesota.
The GardenWeb Prairie and Wildflowers Forum is a web site that facilitates communication among people interested in cultivation and restoration of native prairie plants.
Purdue University's horticulture department recently started a new web site dedicated to the horticultural use of native plants including prairie species.
Prairies, Forests and Wetlands is a review of a book for restorations, with the experiences set in Iowa. The book is by Janette Thompson, on Bur Oak press.
Restoration and Reclamation Review in Minnesota offers scholarly articles on natural areas restoration efforts, large and small.
The Prairie Gardener's Homepage at the Absolutely Wild site based in Crete, Illinois contain information on gardening with native prairie species, including xeric sand specialists. There is an interesting quote in the section "History of Prairies".
The Midwestern Wetland Flora site provides an extensive and official guide to wetland obligate plants in the central U.S. Housed at the Northern Prairie Science Center.
The National Wetlands Inventory.
Ohio State's Oletangy River Wetland Research Park
HR 929 of the 104th Congress included a proposal for a KANKAKEE RIVER BASIN COMPREHENSIVE MANAGEMENT PLAN which would consider "basinwide management methods for flood damage reduction, environmental enhancement, and erosion control and may evaluate water quality, the contribution of wetland restoration to environmental and flood control mitigation, land use management, and other related topics."
Indiana's chapter of TNC has designated the Kankakee Barrens one of the Hoosier Landscapes slated for special ecosystem wide protection efforts.
An article from TNC's newletter describes the Kankakee Barrens and why its one of Indiana's last great places.
Tramping Through the Grand Marsh by Steve Miller of the USF&WS is hosted by the Indiana Dept. of Natural Resources. The author recounts his experiences walking along the Kankakee River levee in Lake County, Indiana in the autumn, and how what he saw relates the the past and future of the Kankakee River and its once Grand Marsh.
Materials from a wetlands course at Purdue University are available on-line, including this page about the Kankakee.
A couple of recent IDNR press releases relate to the Kankakee River:
Hoosier Conservationists Receive Awards and Sporre Marsh Dedicated.
The EE-Link is dedicated to environmental education links on the Internet. Hosted by the University of Michigan, this is truly a first rate effort--fast, attractive, and with an impressive depth of information.
The Indiana Prairie site from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.
Endangered Plants and Animals on the environmental education oriented Ecological Insights web site includes references to several sand country species.
The Nature Conservancy maintains a beautiful web site with multimedia implementations.
EnviroLink maintains an extensive library of links about environmental issues.
EcoIndiana is a clearing house for information about environmental issues in the midwest--it is well organized, fast, and has plenty of depth.
Grand Prairie Friends is an organization dedicated to prairie preservation in east central Illinois.
Richard Manning author of the recently published novel, "Grasslands", has web published a beautiful essay describing the Nebraska sand hills. Reading online is often more painful than pleasurable--this is an exception.
The ambitious and delightful Absolut Vodka site includes Kevin Kelly's Out of Control, an online book said to contain 230,000 words (we didn't count them, and haven't read them all yet either). The site has amazing computer graphics including a host of robot-bees who appear somehow related to our own dragonfly mascot. The graphics are slow, but worth the wait if you are interested in such things. Kevin Kelly accompanied Steve Packard in his Chicago area natural areas restoration work. The project began as a prairie restoration and ended as something just a bit unanticipated. Kelly's observations of this process are centered in a chapter entitled Restoring a Prairie with Fire and Oozy Seeds.
"Edge of the Prairie", a sculpture by Dennis Smith we found while checking for links to this site.
"the Mark Sand Prairie", a painting by Elizabeth Miller.
