The Forest Preserve District of Will County has received a Silver Ribbon Award from Friends of the Chicago River for the Lockport Prairie and Prairie Bluff Ecosystem Restoration Project.

The award was presented Jan. 30 at the 2026 Chicago-Calumet River Summit in Chicago, which recognizes projects that protect and restore the Chicago-Calumet River system and surrounding watersheds.

“It’s wonderful to receive this award, which recognizes the habitat restoration work done at Lockport Prairie Nature Preserve in partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,” said Juli Mason, the Forest Preserve District’s director of conservation. “It recognizes the extraordinary ecological value of Lockport Prairie Nature Preserve and the hard work of countless crews to restore and enhance it.”

The restoration of more than 600 acres at Lockport Prairie and Prairie Bluff preserves took six years of coordinated work by the Forest Preserve District, the Army Corps and Resource Environmental Solutions LLC.

“The project’s incredible site improvements include expansive removal of invasive species, restoring natural underground flow processes, and improving habitats along the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal corridor,” Friends of the Chicago River wrote in its award announcement.

The project enhanced globally rare dolomite prairie and critical habitat for federally endangered species including the Hine’s emerald dragonfly, leafy prairie clover and lakeside daisy.