John Wesley Powell Audubon

By Dale Birkenholz, JWP Stewardship Chair                  Fall 2009 

    Ever since the first European settlers viewed our tall grass prairie, their first reports commented enthusiastically about its beauty and the richness of its wildlife.  Here is one of the earliest accounts: 

              “I viewed the irregular outline of surrounding woods and the tall grasses, with their seed               stalks six to ten feet high.  It presented a magnificence of park scenery, complete from               the hand of nature, and unrivalled by the same sort of scenery in European art.”

So wrote Roger Anderson in his popular 1972 article “The Prairies” in Outdoor Illinois, quoting George Flower, one of the founders of a settlement in Edwards County as he first viewed an Illinois prairie in 1817.  Other early writers waxed as eloquently, and many also wrote of the beautiful array of flowers seen throughout the summer. 

      Each year JWP selects a theme for its newsletter, programs and field trips. We had the year of the raptor, declining local songbirds, and last year, neighborhood wildlife.  This year we will feature prairies. Our native grasslands once covered 60 percent of Illinois, 90 percent of McLean County, but once the fertility of the prairie soils were realized the prairies were doomed.  Most were plowed up in the last half of the 1800s, and today there is only one tract of virgin, native prairie left in McLean County, the five-acre Weston Cemetery in the northeast part of the County.  It has been dedicated as a State Nature Preserve. For our first fall field trip we will visit the historic prairie at Weston (see trip details in this issue). 

      Because native prairies have become so rare, the restoration of nativegrasslands has become more and more popular.  Although these will never be the same as our historic prairies, they provide wildlife habitat, illustrate first hand what much of our historic environment was like, and they also provide an opportunity to study the prairie plants and some of the wildlife. Much of the Route 66 roadside north of Normal has been yellow with blooming yellow coneflower, false sunflower, and several other species this summer.  How many people have noticed this colorful array and the clumps of strange, tall grasses, mostly big bluestem?  Few I imagine, and even fewer know what they are!

      These species have a marvelous story to tell.  The grass stalks tickled the bellies of bison.  Prairie chickens built nests among the clumps.  When much of the prairie lay flooded in spring, millions of waterfowl and shorebirds foraged among the still dormant plants.  Their deep roots imparted large quantities of organic matter into the soil.  They produced the deep, fertile soils, some of the most productive in the world.  This year we hope to learn more about this important part of our heritage. As we learn we can also dream.

Did you know that birding is the number one sport in America? According to US Fish and Wildlife Service, there are currently 51.3 million birders in the United States alone, and this number continues to grow!

To begin birding, all you need are three items: Binoculars, a field guide and a blank notebook. Having a friend that has more experience in birding can also be helpful. Find out more on Birding Basics by clicking on Birding Basics.