A Lively Cemetery Comes Roaring Back!

An early model of Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves stewardship.

 

The 1.3 acres of botanically glorious Short Pioneer Cemetery were dedicated as a Nature Preserve in 1988. (See Endnote 1.)  It survived then, inside the cemetery fence, as a miracle, while the vast prairie that had stretched from there to the horizon gradually vanished entirely. A little more than an acre bloomed annually above the honored dead. The quiet cemetery gradually became more and more exceptional and irreplaceable.

 

This prairie remnant grows on a low sand dune, from glacial times. Over the millennia it had become diverse with now-rare plants: clustered poppy mallow, cleft phlox, goat’s rue, starved panic grass, and an unusual species of prickly pear cactus. 

 

“Put a fence around it. And leave it alone!” was once the prescription for nature. But in 2010, botanists published a little study. The flora here was vanishing. Fifteen species had been lost since the last monitoring in 1977.  

The flora was being lost, but what was left called out silently for help. 

In 2019, a decade later, when a few of us began organizing Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves, we had never heard of Short Prairie. But we knew there were problems among the 596 Illinois Nature Preserves. Once a system celebrated as a creative model institution, constituency had diminished. A series of, shall we say, "focused elsewhere" Governors, reduced staff and budgets. As the Friends began, we put out a request for reports. Soon 31 Site Reports came in, including anonymous concerns about Short. 

We published these reports not to whine, complain, or place blame. We knew the staff had vastly more on their plates than anyone could accomplish. Our theory was that, if people knew, they’d care, and citizens would rise to the occasion.

 

We’d never heard of Michael Campbell either. He’d been active in the conservation of ospreys, led a team that put up nesting platforms that were aiding an Illinois comeback of this once rare raptor. Somehow he came across our notice about Short. He worked nearby and felt perhaps a neighborly responsibility. He volunteered, and that started the next little miracle. 

 

Two chainsaws go to work. The prairie was thick with invasive trees.

Mike and the Friends reached out to find other potential stewards. Soon a little “core of active generosity” began to form. Two adjacent landowners agreed to cooperate. With invading trees lethally shading more than half the prairie, volunteer stewards brought loppers, bow-saws, and chain-saws. Soon “Let There Be Light” was more than a metaphor. 

 

A fire that's inspiring and depressing, all at once. 

On March 7, Nature Preserves staffer Kim Roman made a bold decision. The crew burning at Goose Lake Prairie finished a bit early. Some of that team, including some trained Friends volunteers, jumped into vehicles and headed for the little cemetery. They burned it, for the first time in years. The fire was inspiring and depressing all at once. Inspiring because we knew the best parts of the prairie would thrive this year. Depressing because much of the preserve had no prairie vegetation to burn, just a few moldy leaves under the death-dealing invasives. 

 

In 2020, the prairie in bloom looked more like the miracle it is. During summer and fall, the stewards gathered seed from the center to broadcast in the dead zones where the trees, brush, and briars had been. Again this fall, more and more shade was cut back. For this preserve to recover quality and sustainability, such stewardship will be needed for at least a few years. (See Endnote 2.) 

 

The 2021 growing season will be yet again better (see Endnote 3). The high-quality core has the potential to triple in size. In time, the miracle may cover the whole preserve and some of the cooperating neighbors' conservation land outside. 

 

Now, in December 2020, in honor of human Dedication and ecosystem Potential, we ask you to consider making a year-end donation to the Friends. It’s tax exempt, celestially correct, and will help us expand this work to a lot more sites … building communities of caring for the long haul, as nature needs. To donate, click here.

 

Endnotes

 

Endnote 1

Most people were buried in this pioneer cemetery in the mid or late 1800s. Few descendants continue to visit. But the survival of the ecosystem they maintained in this resting place helps consecrate the loved ones' memories. 

We wondered whether to actually name Short Pioneer Cemetery Prairie Nature Preserve in this post - for life-or-death reasons. With cemeteries being some of the tallgrass region’s best surviving prairies, these delicate little gems could easily be trampled to death by lovers of nature. They need communities of local stewards, but they couldn’t withstand even two dozen people regularly applying their feet to the flora and fauna. No scientists nor police stand around to caution visitors. Perhaps good signage, an established path system, and hidden cameras to identify rule breakers would allow these sites to be more widely appreciated. But in the meantime, we encourage you to carefully visit your local cemetery prairie, respectfully, with the lowest impact possible. Please also support efforts to restore high-quality big prairies, where we people can act like buffalo all we want. 

Volunteers Claire Snyder and Matt Evans congratulate each other 
at the end of the little cemetery's first shade-clearing workday in February 2020. 

If you want to help with future stewardship of this prairie, please contact the Friends. 

For an introduction to cemetery prairies, check out this fine YouTube video by Chris Benda.

  

Endnote 2

The 2010 report already had most of the needed management recommendations: Remove invasive weeds and the shade of trees – necessary to maintain this dry-mesic sand prairie, which is slowly disappearing. Otherwise this remnant will become even smaller and its species more vulnerable to loss. Very little management has occurred on this site since 1984. To restore and maintain this prairie will require prescribed burns annually, perhaps of half the high-quality area and all the recovering areas, until it has re-stabilized. 

The important 2010 report was published as the "Vascular Flora of Short Pioneer Cemetery Prairie Nature Preserve, Grundy County, Illinois: Composition and Change Since 1977" by Loy R. Phillippe, Paul B. Marcum, Daniel T. Busemeyer, and John E. Ebinger.

Is it ever good to cut trees down? In this 1.3 acre prairie nature preserve, conservationists have slowly come to realize that the answer is, yes.

Clearing brush and invasive trees is a lot of work, physically. It also takes planning, sequencing, and, for that matter, community education. This photo shows Mike Campbell (in hardhat, right) and the crew that cleaned up (and burned) the mess. 

Endnote 3

For more detail on this photo, see below. 

Botanists thrill to this. The diversity and rarity of the post-burn flora indicate an ecosystem on the rebound. Some of the plants in this photo are semi-trampled and lying on their sides, but they're back! The magenta is poppy mallow, lavender is prairie petunia, white is flowering spurge, yellow is western sunflower, and the grasses are many, especially little bluestem, this prairie's commonest grass. The big leaves at the top are invading briars. Will the diverse prairie outcompete some of the large, dense patches of invading briars, or will stewards be needed to reduce them? Time will tell, and we'll be happy to watch the drama. Detailed, informed attention (and a certain amount of humility and patience) will be needed. 

Acknowledgements 

Thanks for leadership, initiative, proofing and edits to Kim Roman, Mike Campbell, Eriko Kojima, Christos Economou, Emma Leavens, and Matt Evans.