Farmers Weekly Review

By Nick Reiher

An idea planted with the help of a golf ball and nurtured with federal funding, Springfield red tape cutting and thousands of hours of labor, has blossomed into a preservation project that will benefit people and myriad species of plants and animals now and for generations to come.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Forest Preserve District of Will County held a ribbon-cutting ceremony May 31 to commemorate a $5.5 million restoration project begun in 2018 to improve the ecosystem at Prairie Bluff Preserve in Crest Hill and Lockport Prairie Nature Preserve in Lockport Township.

Lockport Prairie, on Division Street east of Illinois 53/Broadway Street, features wet and wet-mesic dolomite prairie, which forest preserve district officials say are among the most critically imperiled natural communities on Earth. As a result of this unique geological setting, the preserve is home to several federally- and state-threatened and endangered species.

The restoration work overseen by the Army Corps removed invasive species and converted formerly agricultural acres into restored prairie. Because the two preserves are linked by an underground water flow, the project also replenished Prairie Bluff’s underground water system so it flows to Lockport Prairie and its extremely rare patch of dolomite habitat.

That is some relief to residents in the subdivision to the west of Prairie Bluff Preserve, who saw some flooding from runoff since that portion pitches to the west, said Julie Mason, Forest Preserve District Ecological Management Supervisor. And the rest pitched to the east toward Lockport Preserve.

After unearthing and improving 4,000 to 5,000 feet of the old drain tile system used for the former Stateville prison farm, all the runoff now pitches to the east, helping to stay longer on Prairie Bluff Preserve and providing more drainage to Lockport Prairie.

“Here at Prairie Bluff Preserve, we stand above what makes up nearly half of the recharge zone for Lockport Prairie,” said Andrew Hawkins, Forest Preserve District Director of Planning and Development at the May 31 event.

“The restoration activities done here at Prairie Bluff have been essential to ensure the ongoing health of this ecosystem.”

In addition to spending about 10,00o hours transforming a former prison farm into a prairie, Joshua LaPointe of Applied Ecological Services said Lockport Prairie took some 30,000 hours to remove invasive plants harmful to the ecosystem there.

And since they couldn’t bring machinery in, he said they had to pull each by hand using “gloves of death,” and two-person cutting tools to herd the overgrowth of cattails and other unwanted intruders.

Then, they planted some 550,000 seedlings of 400 varieties of species suitable for those types of preserves, Mason said.

So, the work is done?

“Work is never done on a preserve,” Mason said. Now comes the work to nurture and maintain what they’ve done, using controlled burns and other means to thwart invasive plants, while protecting endangered species.

Col. Kenneth Rockwell heralded the partnership between the Army Corps and the Forest Preserve District of Will County, which provided another $2.8 million toward the prairie renovations.

He noted the Army Corps was able to provide the funds through the Section 206 Aquatic Restoration Program, and thanked U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Naperville, for making sure the dollars were available.

Underwood said she was proud to be able to help with the funding for a project that will benefit the ecosystem now and for future residents.

That was the plan all along for Brent Hassert, former state representative and whose lobbying firm includes the Forest Preserve District of Will County.

Around 2000, Hassert was golfing on a course he helped the Lockport Township Park District build by getting the state to sell 237 acres of surplus Stateville Correctional Center property to the district for some $3,000 an acre, saving them millions.

On the 10^th tee, on the western edge of the course, he saw more vacant former Stateville land that seemed primed for residential development.

“I just got fed up with all the development,” said Hassert in 2015. “And I wanted to do something my kids and grandkids could remember.”

As it happened, Forest Preserve officials in the early 2000s were trying to figure out how to get help from the state to preserve Lockport Prairie – home to the endangered Hine’s Emerald Dragonfly and Leafy Prairie Clover – was itself one of the few dolomite prairies remaining in the world.

Hassert learned the Forest Preserve District could manage the land if they were lucky enough to acquire it.

So, working with the late Joel Brunsvold, Illinois Natural Resources director at the time, Hassert and he were able to transfer the land from the Illinois Department of Corrections to IDNR.

Then, in 2007, IDNR signed a 20-year agreement with the Forest Preserve District to manage the prairie. With the help of then-IDNR Director Wayne Rosenthal, all involved, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, were able to engineer the sale of the property to the Forest Preserve District.

For $1.

Since the 2007 agreement, the Forest Preserve District has invested more than $2 million at Prairie Bluff Preserve, which includes parking, latrines and more than 3 miles of paved, multi-use trail. The Lockport Township Park District has provided softball fields and other active recreational services on its 82 acres of the land.

Though he had a hand in developing many projects inside and outside his former legislative district – including the southern leg of Interstate 355 – Hassert, at the 2015 celebration of the sale, said the culmination of the Prairie Bluff project just might be tops on his list.

“Someday, when my grandkids are walking through there, I want them to know someone was smart enough to preserve this land for them.”

Nick Reiher is editor of Farmers Weekly Review.

Former state representative Brent Hassert eyes the view of development encroaching on Prairie Bluff Preserve at the 2015 event celebrating the Forest Preserve District purchase of more than 500 acres of former Stateville farm property from the state for $1, thanks to his intervention.

Because the two preserves are linked by an underground water flow, the project also replenished Prairie Bluff’s underground water system so it flows to Lockport Prairie, pictured, and its extremely rare patch of dolomite habitat. (Photo courtesy of the Forest Preserve District of Will County)