Midewin Prairie starts to matter

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Gary Sullivan of The Wetlands Initiative explains the years of work that went into the South Patrol Road restoration, a small piece of Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. | Dale Bowman~For Sun-Times Media

Updated: November 24, 2011 8:23AM

As Gary Sullivan talked, his arms lifted as if they were compelled to encompass the South Patrol Road restoration ‘‘from soybeans to sedge meadow’’ at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie.

Midewin, the nearly 20,000-acre Forest Service site near Wilmington, was created from the former Joliet Arsenal in 1996 as the country’s first national tallgrass prairie.

On Oct. 14, the National Forest Foundation announced Midewin as one of the ‘‘Treasured Landscape’’ conservation campaign sites. That means more money from a private and public mix, including a major donation from Alliance Pipeline.

John Hendricks, NFF chairman and Discovery Communications chairman, said, ‘‘This is a rare opportunity to turn back the clock.’’

NFF president Bill Possiel called it ‘‘bringing institutions together in common purposes.’’ He has learned to appreciate tallgrass prairies, and especially one of the odder birds at Midewin, the northern shrike, with its habit of impaling prey on barbed wire or spines. The designation is a chance to ‘‘elevate and accelerate restorations.’’

After the news conference, I did my first formal tour of Midewin with Sullivan, senior restoration ecologist for The Wetlands Initiative (TWI), and Renee Thakali, an ecosystem restoration team leader for USFS.

In my own yearly tours, I already appreciated the size of the Midewin. But their tour gave a sense of both the progress and how much more there is to do.

Hundreds of bunkers, hulking (even haunting) soil-covered concrete buildings where ammunition was once cured, still need to be removed. Work continues on breaking drain tile to restore natural soil and water interaction. Every year, volunteers put in thousands of hours collecting seeds and planting seedlings.

Near the end of the tour, we went past the nearly 500-acre South Patrol Road restoration, which was led by TWI and so far is the pride of Midewin. Sullivan and Thakali eagerly, almost as if compelled, led the group to nearly disappear in the site. Ultimately, it is that kind of love from the soul of people’s beings that will make Midewin work.

‘‘From a distance, tallgrass prairies look flat and homo­geneous,’’ Sullivan said. ‘‘But when you go out, it is different. Every year, new things show up. Come back in 10 years and it will be totally different. Ten years ago this was a soybean field.’’

It was mid-October when we were there, so it was mostly a sea of browning plants, but there was much variety in plants, especially considering a decade ago it was a drained soybean field.

For the first decade of Midewin’s existence, I thought it was a colossal waste of the largest natural space near Chicago. But in the last few years, I sense it lumbering toward its potential. A good base of volunteers and strong not-for-profits like the TWI and The Nature Conservancy have fueled a better pace.

My own appreciation of Midewin lumbers toward a better understanding. The eventual introduction of an experimental bison herd will speed that to a trot. I suspect a bison reintroduction will finally put Midewin more into the public perception. We’ll examine that possibility another day.

Midewin (fs.usda.gov/midewin) offers tours regularly. From 5-9  p.m. Saturday, there’s a ‘‘Musical Trick-or-Treat Bunker Style.’’ Reservations are required by calling (815) 423-6370 or e-mailing midewin_rsvp@fs.fed.us.