The tall grasses, prairie flowers and wildlife that dot the broad landscape harken back to a time when nearly the entire state was an undisturbed prairie, a teeming ecosystem transformed by the westward expansion of 19th Century America.
"Prairie covered about 22 million acres of Illinois, 60 percent or more of the land," said Eric Smith, natural heritage biologist for district 13, which includes Champaign County. "Now we have less than one-tenth of 1 percent of our prairies remaining."
Farmers at first shied away from the prairies because there were no trees to build their homes. Then they discovered how fertile the soil was and went to work plowing up the prairies and planting their fields.
Between the urban buildup in Chicago - once a prairie marsh - and the rural development of the rest of the state, somewhere around four to six square miles are all that remain of Illinois prairies.
That information comes from Bob Vaiden, a geologist with the state geological survey. But more important than Vaiden's "real" job is his love of the Meadowbrook Prairie.
"Bob's planted every plant out there at Meadowbrook," Smith said. "He is Meadowbrook."
While Vaiden hasn't quite planted every plant at the restoration site, he has been an active participant. Vaiden has worked on the project for about 12 years, he said, the last several as the habitat chair of the Champaign County Audubon Society. While an unofficial manager of the prairie, Vaiden is well-known throughout the Park District staff for his work on the prairie.
"This stuff grows itself. We just needed someone to keep an eye on it," Vaiden said. "We have weeding parties and everyone enjoys collecting seeds in the fall, but we don't make too much of a difference."
The Meadowbrook Prairie project started in 1976 when four acres were planted by hand. Another acre was added in 1984, and about a dozen more were planted in the early 90s, with the rest of the 60 acres planted last year. Vaiden said it's easy to see the difference between old and new when you walk through the different prairie sections.
Unlike weeds and perennials, the prairie plants take several years to develop an extensive root system and don't grow very tall. That's why when prairies are first planted, it takes time to see the results.
"You don't create prairies overnight," Smith said. "It's an evolving process that continually progresses as time passes. Most of the prairie biomass is located underground, as a lot of plants spend their first two to four years developing root systems."
Once the root system is in place, the prairie can take over an area with the help of a fire. The Park District burns sections of the prairie on an occasional basis to smoke out all the weeds and other invading species. But the prairie plants use their deep root systems to keep the natural habitat intact when the plants and grasses all grow back. "Fire cleans everything off. It gets rid of trees and bushes and helps control weeds," Vaiden said. "Prairie plants do just fine with fire."
Burning one section at a time helps the wildlife in the prairie adjust to a different area that hasn't been treated by the Park District. Vaiden said a typical prairie will have between 35 and 40 species of plants and animals in any given area.
That number pales in comparison with the 100 or more species that dominated the prairies before Illinois was settled, though. "Restoring prairies can make them look like the old ones, but the actual prairie itself is an ecological phenomenon not likely to be complete again for centuries and centuries," Smith said. "It can be reconstructed or restored, but in terms of the holistic functioning of the ecosystems, I don't know if it can be done or not."
Vaiden said the current Illinois landscape is basically barren of anything but crops and wild plants and flowers along roads.
"Most of the plants you'll see have nothing do with Illinois; they're all alien," Vaiden said. "The prairie is so fascinating because of its diverse ecosystem. Depending on what hill you were looking at back then, it could have been yellow or white or purple, depending on what was blooming."
Meadowbrook has been various shades so far this spring and summer, the current color scheme courtesy of the tall green grasses that still haven't reached their final height of eight to 10 feet tall.
People are always welcome to meander along the paths through the prairie, which Vaiden said is taken advantage of quite often. The Urbana Park District has worked to combine the restoration site with something that can still be used for recreation.
"The Park District has always had a real strong environmental bend to it," Vaiden said. "What this park is, is a quiet walking trail, good for bird watching or just to stroll through."
But more than just being an aesthetic addition to the Illinois landscape, Smith said the prairie restoration projects across the state are crucial learning tools.
"You could say they're important simply because they're part of our heritage. They're what Illinois used to look like, and people in the future generations should be able to see that," Smith said. "Also, you never know when the next medicinal cure or disease-fighting agent will come from a plant or animal that inhabits the prairies."
Vaiden said the Park District has stood fast in its goal to maintain the prairie restoration site, even in the face of criticism about "that unused land."
But Vaiden said his "gardening on a grand scale" won't be stopped any time soon.
"We've had people call up and ask about a sledding hill or a jogging path through here, people who just don't understand this," Vaiden said. "The Park District isn't going to put a baseball diamond or a tennis court out here."
"It's a fascinating window on the past."
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