In 1996, New York Times science writer William Stevens highlighted this site in his book Miracle Under the Oaks. But back then, the jury was still out. How much quality could these 85 acres recover?
The following slides are from a proposal by Rebecca Collings, Senior Resource Ecologist for the Cook County Forest Preserves, presented on January 26, 2021 to the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission.
Pssst: And to break the suspense, the proposal received its final approval on May 11th. For more on the implications of that legal step, see Endnote 1.
It is significant that the Native People who once were managers and participants in this ecosystem are acknowledged in this proposal. The word "nature" is becoming better understood. It does not mean the absence of people - or the absence of human influence. For more on that, see Endnote 2.
Before May 11th, there were 407 Nature Preserves in this state, with a primary aim being biodiversity conservation. The Nature Preserves System seeks the best of the best. There are few rich-soil prairies with more than an acre or two of very high quality - and no very high quality savannas. Sand prairies and sand savannas are more common. But they don't conserve the biota of the classic, rich-soil "Prairie State" ecosystems - those most-farmable acres that contribute so importantly to global food supplies (and which may over time most need the genetic resources that survive only in ecosystem preserves).
To put this preserve in context, Collings showed this slide:
Outlined in red, Somme Prairie was dedicated as a Nature Preserve way, way back in 1984. Somme Prairie Grove is outlined in orange. Somme Woods in yellow. This entire complex of the Somme/Chipilly preserves adds up to 730 contiguous (except for streets) acres.
Most of the new Nature Preserve is savanna, woodland, and prairie. There are smaller amounts of sedge meadow and marsh. The grim-looking gray areas are buckthorn mixed with greater or lesser amounts of native shrub vegetation. The smallest gray dot, surrounded by savanna, and not recognized as anything special on this map, is actually a "kinda special" rare native thicket of nannyberry, wild plum, dogwood, grape, hawthorn, and young oaks.
And now - a somewhat hard-to-read map that gets at the heart of the issue:
Seven areas, outlined in purple, were determined by the Illinois Natural History Survey to represent "high quality" savanna. In the hard-grading Illinois system, Grade A is "very high quality" and Grade B is "high quality." Both are very rare.
To give a sense of how rare, when the globally path-finding and respected Illinois Natural Areas Inventory (INAI) was conducted in the 1970s, a site was included if it had a "significant feature" - such as an endangered species population or, more importantly, a high-quality ecosystem. An endangered species population is well worth conserving. But most worthy were the rarer, so called Category I sites - those with high-quality original ecosystems, with hundreds of interdependent species. The Inventory identified two acres of Grade A (very high quality) prairie at what is now Somme Prairie Nature Preserve. That was out of only 54 acres found in the entire "Prairie State."
Does only 54 acres of prairie surviving in Illinois sound pathetic to you? Or alarming? I hope so. And then compare the numbers of acres of surviving prairie found by the INAI to the amounts of forest and savanna.
Total High Quality Acres Surviving in Illinois for Three Communities
At a meeting to consider the proposal, one expert thundered, "Admit it! They're gone! Gone!! GONE!!!" as he pounded the table. He made a compelling and reasonable point. Millenia-old natural communities that have lost many of their species may be permanently degraded. But that's a hypothesis. Another hypothesis is that enough of the biota survives that "nature preserve quality" communities can recover over time with good care. Nachusa Grasslands and Somme Prairie Grove are examples of initiatives to test both hypotheses.
For four decades, dozens of dedicated leaders and thousands of generous volunteers have worked, advised by the best experts, to restore quality to the savanna remnant at Somme. Savanna birds and butterflies have returned. While the site originally supported 232 native plant species, today with the successful addition by seed of 253 species, it now supports a total of 485 native plant species, an impressive number. (For cameo stories on 25 of those species, click here)
Comparing numbers is easy. But how do we value the overall ecosystem? High-quality communities are much rarer than endangered species populations. There are as yet no objective metrics that assure consensus on judging ecosystem quality. Expert judgment seems to be the closest we come. In 2015, experts from the Illinois Natural History Survey offered their judgment that Somme Prairie Grove now contains 8.5 acres of high quality savanna and 63.8 acres of "good quality" - with potential to restore to high quality. (See Endnote 3.) When we started restoration in 1980, experts would have found those numbers to be 0 and 0. Thus, though still early in the restoration process, we celebrate. For some of us, inspiration and hope emerge from these numbers.
One indicator of high quality is diverse vegetation with a high proportion of conservative species. Some of the conservative species visible in the photo above include northern dropseed grass, leadplant, butterflyweed, prairie dock, and round-headed bush clover. The scattered oaks in the distance are typical of savanna - as are the frequently burned-off, re-sprouting "oak grubs" throughout.
The Forest Preserves' presentation to the Nature Preserve Commissioners also recognized the restored quality of the site's formerly buckthorn-choked woodlands. (For a U. of I. science news report and a technical paper on this woodland, click here.) There is no hard and fast line between prairie - and savanna - and woodland. The fact that they blend into each other on this site is likely a plus for some species.
Rebecca Collings' presentation listed eight species of plants that are Threatened or Endangered in Illinois and one species of national (and global) endangered status. Of those eight species, six were introduced (or partly introduced) from other sites. (See Endnote 4.) Of the six introduced species, four no longer survive at the sites the seed came from. That's not because we took too many seeds; we took a very small proportion, and all these plants are perennials. They're gone from the sites where volunteer seed-searchers found them decades ago because - as is happening to most sites across the Midwest - ecosystem quality is rapidly degrading due to lack of fire, invasive species, overabundant deer, and other stresses. Nature Preserves get better than average care, but nature deserves much better care much more broadly.
A few of the needy species are shown below:
Of the 14 species of birds of greatest concern that breed at Somme Prairie Grove, none bred there in the decades prior to restoration. They include savanna specialists like the field sparrow, red-headed woodpecker, American woodcock, brown thrasher, and the yellow-billed and black-billed cuckoos.
"Reserved Rights" is an odd category. It reflects strict Nature Preserve rules from the 1960s, when the Illinois Nature Preserves System was the first of its kind. Back then, the belief was that the way to preserve nature was to leave it alone, utterly. So now, while the Forest Preserve has given up all rights to mow for picnic areas or install a bike trail, it retains the right to burn, gather and plant seeds according to an approved plan, control excess numbers of deer, and remove artificial drainage structures.
Volunteer stewards shown here - after a morning slaying brush - include Russ Sala, Daniel Ratner, Ben Staehlin, John Paterson, Jim Hensel, Nehru Arunasalam, Bruce Davidson, Ray Bernadin, Rett Donnelly, Sai Ramakrishna, Allen Giedratis, Lisa Musgrave, Duke Riggen and Wade Thoma. Both photos by Eriko Kojima.
It's embarrassing for me to include that inset thanking me. But Rebecca Collings was profoundly right to recognize the decades of volunteers who've worked here and at so many other sites. We, the volunteers, have made such success possible.
Also deserving credit is the staff of the Forest Preserves. They acquired this land and have protected it for more than 80 years. They had the courage and foresight in the 1970s to authorize and help train volunteers to do this work. Today, with increasing skill and dedication, staff do the controlled burns, secure many needed permits, train volunteers, and ward off various (sometimes politically difficult to resist) demands to carve off pieces of the preserves for incompatible uses. (That last burden will now be much alleviated by the strength of Nature Preserve legal provisions and the support of the staff of the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.)
As volunteer Christos Economou said, "And that's what's really so special about Nature Preserve status for Somme Prairie Grove. It's the first savanna restoration to ever be so honored, and so empowered - accomplished mostly by the collective vision, grit, and determination of thousands of local people, guided and aided by universities, agencies, institutions, and corporations. Really special!"
Congratulations to all. Celebration time, indeed!
Endnote 1.
Illinois Nature Preserves are permanently protected from roads, clear-cutting, plowing, or any government agency taking the land for the drainage basins, sewage treatment, or the construction of anything. They are "at their highest and best use for public purpose" in their natural state. The Illinois Nature Preserves System deserves to be more widely known and supported. Issues, needs, references, and links are provided here.
Endnote 2.
Ever since twelve thousand years ago, when the mile-thick ice of the Wisconsin Glacier melted back from the Lake Border Moraine (down the west slope of which today Somme Prairie Grove rolls majestically), people have been part of this ecosystem. This nature never did and today would not survive without people playing our roles. We can imagine the prairie and savanna landscape without people. Indeed, for five million years, this ecosystem and its species evolved under the influence of lightning fire rather than person-ignited fire ... because there were no people in the Americas for most of this community's evolution. But for the last dozen millennia, indigenous cultures and individuals hunted, burned, and harvested in ways that we know were sustainable, as the species we today seek to conserve survived here in that context.
Of the 14 species of birds of greatest concern that breed at Somme Prairie Grove, none bred there in the decades prior to restoration. They include savanna specialists like the field sparrow, red-headed woodpecker, American woodcock, brown thrasher, and the yellow-billed and black-billed cuckoos.
"Reserved Rights" is an odd category. It reflects strict Nature Preserve rules from the 1960s, when the Illinois Nature Preserves System was the first of its kind. Back then, the belief was that the way to preserve nature was to leave it alone, utterly. So now, while the Forest Preserve has given up all rights to mow for picnic areas or install a bike trail, it retains the right to burn, gather and plant seeds according to an approved plan, control excess numbers of deer, and remove artificial drainage structures.
Volunteer stewards shown here - after a morning slaying brush - include Russ Sala, Daniel Ratner, Ben Staehlin, John Paterson, Jim Hensel, Nehru Arunasalam, Bruce Davidson, Ray Bernadin, Rett Donnelly, Sai Ramakrishna, Allen Giedratis, Lisa Musgrave, Duke Riggen and Wade Thoma. Both photos by Eriko Kojima.
It's embarrassing for me to include that inset thanking me. But Rebecca Collings was profoundly right to recognize the decades of volunteers who've worked here and at so many other sites. We, the volunteers, have made such success possible.
Also deserving credit is the staff of the Forest Preserves. They acquired this land and have protected it for more than 80 years. They had the courage and foresight in the 1970s to authorize and help train volunteers to do this work. Today, with increasing skill and dedication, staff do the controlled burns, secure many needed permits, train volunteers, and ward off various (sometimes politically difficult to resist) demands to carve off pieces of the preserves for incompatible uses. (That last burden will now be much alleviated by the strength of Nature Preserve legal provisions and the support of the staff of the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.)
As volunteer Christos Economou said, "And that's what's really so special about Nature Preserve status for Somme Prairie Grove. It's the first savanna restoration to ever be so honored, and so empowered - accomplished mostly by the collective vision, grit, and determination of thousands of local people, guided and aided by universities, agencies, institutions, and corporations. Really special!"
Congratulations to all. Celebration time, indeed!
Endnotes
Endnote 1.
Illinois Nature Preserves are permanently protected from roads, clear-cutting, plowing, or any government agency taking the land for the drainage basins, sewage treatment, or the construction of anything. They are "at their highest and best use for public purpose" in their natural state. The Illinois Nature Preserves System deserves to be more widely known and supported. Issues, needs, references, and links are provided here.
Endnote 2.
Ever since twelve thousand years ago, when the mile-thick ice of the Wisconsin Glacier melted back from the Lake Border Moraine (down the west slope of which today Somme Prairie Grove rolls majestically), people have been part of this ecosystem. This nature never did and today would not survive without people playing our roles. We can imagine the prairie and savanna landscape without people. Indeed, for five million years, this ecosystem and its species evolved under the influence of lightning fire rather than person-ignited fire ... because there were no people in the Americas for most of this community's evolution. But for the last dozen millennia, indigenous cultures and individuals hunted, burned, and harvested in ways that we know were sustainable, as the species we today seek to conserve survived here in that context.
Endnote 3.
To determine what sites are worthy of Nature Preserve status, experts consider ecosystem quality and rare species present on the site that are seen as needing conservation action. Plant species often take center stage, as they are easiest to inventory and may reflect animal populations as well. Animal species are equally important - in the cases where bird, mammal, butterfly, reptile, or amphibian species of concern have been studied and can be confirmed on a site. But how about less well known species like beetles, fungi, or bacteria? Any of these may turn out to play an important role and be needed some day by agriculture, ecosystem recovery, and science - especially as climate change presents unforeseen challenges.
Some people point out that the rain forest and coral reef have more species per unit area. Their conservation is crucial, but we can't conserve the biodiversity of the temperate grasslands in the tropics or the ocean. Brazilians ask why they should sacrifice to save the remaining 50% of their rain forests if wealthy Americans can't find the resources to conserve the pittance we have left. We in North America should set a better example and build communities of caring and initiative through which we can support and partner with people elsewhere on the globe.
Another important but often undiscussed consideration is that of genetics. Biodiversity conservation has long emphasized the need to conserve on three levels - the ecosystem, the species, and the genetic. Many Illinois species also occur from the Atlantic to the Rockies or from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. The species may not be in danger of extinction, but many of its genetic alleles may be. If agriculture needs to borrow from the gene pool some element of the genetic code that would protect wheat, corn, or soybeans from some killer disease, the gene that works here may not be found in a wild grass from Maine, Saskatchewan, or New Mexico.
Also worth mention here (and more consideration in a later, more-technical note) is a limitation on the value of restoring a plant species by seed. The seeds do not necessarily bring with them the insects, fungi, bacteria, and other species that may be associated with that plant species in a high-quality original community. And some conservationists add, at this point: And maybe these unknown species will turn out to have no use for us humans whatsoever. We have to learn to think beyond what’s in it for us.
For more about the strategies and challenges of the "Somme Prairie Grove Experiment" as well as more detail about the many people who contributed, click here.
Endnote 4.
A number of "formerly endangered" species thrive at Somme Prairie Grove - species that are no longer quite so endangered. They may in many cases be "off the list" because we at Somme and other sites worked so hard at their recovery. Such species at Somme Prairie Grove include the savanna blazing star, prairie lady-slipper, small sundrops, eared false foxglove, and others. We should not altogether forget such species when we assess sites for conservation priority and action.
When we celebrate, let's celebrate victories as well as inspiring challenges!
Thanks mostly to Rebecca Collings who assembled all the graphics in this presentation. Thanks to the many fine Forest Preserve staff who worked on this proposal and to the Nature Preserves staff and Commissioners who worked on it from their end. Our tax money supports these important institutions. We should be proud of them and raise their profiles in the eyes of our elected representatives.
Thanks for proofing and editing go gratefully to Kathy Garness, Christos Economou, and Eriko Kojima.
To determine what sites are worthy of Nature Preserve status, experts consider ecosystem quality and rare species present on the site that are seen as needing conservation action. Plant species often take center stage, as they are easiest to inventory and may reflect animal populations as well. Animal species are equally important - in the cases where bird, mammal, butterfly, reptile, or amphibian species of concern have been studied and can be confirmed on a site. But how about less well known species like beetles, fungi, or bacteria? Any of these may turn out to play an important role and be needed some day by agriculture, ecosystem recovery, and science - especially as climate change presents unforeseen challenges.
Some people point out that the rain forest and coral reef have more species per unit area. Their conservation is crucial, but we can't conserve the biodiversity of the temperate grasslands in the tropics or the ocean. Brazilians ask why they should sacrifice to save the remaining 50% of their rain forests if wealthy Americans can't find the resources to conserve the pittance we have left. We in North America should set a better example and build communities of caring and initiative through which we can support and partner with people elsewhere on the globe.
Another important but often undiscussed consideration is that of genetics. Biodiversity conservation has long emphasized the need to conserve on three levels - the ecosystem, the species, and the genetic. Many Illinois species also occur from the Atlantic to the Rockies or from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. The species may not be in danger of extinction, but many of its genetic alleles may be. If agriculture needs to borrow from the gene pool some element of the genetic code that would protect wheat, corn, or soybeans from some killer disease, the gene that works here may not be found in a wild grass from Maine, Saskatchewan, or New Mexico.
Also worth mention here (and more consideration in a later, more-technical note) is a limitation on the value of restoring a plant species by seed. The seeds do not necessarily bring with them the insects, fungi, bacteria, and other species that may be associated with that plant species in a high-quality original community. And some conservationists add, at this point: And maybe these unknown species will turn out to have no use for us humans whatsoever. We have to learn to think beyond what’s in it for us.
For more about the strategies and challenges of the "Somme Prairie Grove Experiment" as well as more detail about the many people who contributed, click here.
Endnote 4.
A number of "formerly endangered" species thrive at Somme Prairie Grove - species that are no longer quite so endangered. They may in many cases be "off the list" because we at Somme and other sites worked so hard at their recovery. Such species at Somme Prairie Grove include the savanna blazing star, prairie lady-slipper, small sundrops, eared false foxglove, and others. We should not altogether forget such species when we assess sites for conservation priority and action.
When we celebrate, let's celebrate victories as well as inspiring challenges!
Acknowledgments
Thanks mostly to Rebecca Collings who assembled all the graphics in this presentation. Thanks to the many fine Forest Preserve staff who worked on this proposal and to the Nature Preserves staff and Commissioners who worked on it from their end. Our tax money supports these important institutions. We should be proud of them and raise their profiles in the eyes of our elected representatives.
Thanks for proofing and editing go gratefully to Kathy Garness, Christos Economou, and Eriko Kojima.
Congratulations! This recognition is so well deserved! A tribute to the passion, dedication, persistence and intelligence of many people, including you, the great steward of Somme Prairie Grove. And now the gift can go on, as the amazing prairie, savanna, and woodland seed from Somme Prairie Grove can be collected and shared with sites all up and down the North Branch.
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