Morton Grove Prairie Nature Preserve Rises Again!

Morton Grove Prairie seemed mostly gone. Years of minimal stewardship had left most of the site without prairie plants or animals. Instead the occasional visitors mostly walked through head-high brush and stands of tall goldenrod. 

This sad story was told in a post in October 2023.

Whose fault was it? Not the Morton Grove Park District that owned it. This good agency had no ecosystem scientists on staff, unsurprisingly, and they responded to what minimal input they got. Keeping rare Nature Preserves healthy in most cases is too hard without multiple inputs - including public participation and support. 

Now - an amazing comeback was recently reported by the stewards team, empowered by Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves. It is reproduced below:

It Takes a Village to Save a Prairie

Admiring a Year of Good Stewardship ... Inspiring the Year Ahead 

March 18th 2024 - a new chapter begins for Morton Grove Prairie. 

A new community of neighbors assembled by Friends and the North Branch Restoration Project starts to battle the brush.

On April 3rd, 2024 the neighbors were joined by the Peregrines - a travelling Friends group of stewards mostly in their twenties and thirties. Gray dogwood, brambles, and willow bit the dust. Eileen Sutter, in the foreground, began recording the many prairie species that survived, many in small numbers.

Some of the early leaders - Eriko, Larry, Maria, Stone and Rebeccah - squint towards the camera. They claimed they were blinded by the prairie's bright future.

In May, the Morton Grove Park District removed many cottonwood trees that had grown and gradually shaded the eastern edge of the prairie. Without this important "heavy lifting" - restoration of much of the site would not be possible. 

Bit by bit the new stewards team identified needs and divided up responsibilities.

Ken heroically brushcut tall goldenrod, sumac resprouts, and other aggressive species throughout the growing season. And he taught others to do the same!

By summer, some of the better parts of the site were looking good.

But most of the prairie was just gone. It would not come back without help.

Weekday evening workdays focus on collecting seeds in the better areas. The work delivered many picturesque golden hours and dreamy sunsets. Here, Maria searches for seed seed of early-blooming species.

Here that selfsame Maria stands with seed bounty collected in the prairie by the new group in 2024 - in total, about 7 gallons of roughly 35 species. A generous supplement of hyper-diverse seeds also was donated to the cause by the nearby North Branch Restoration Project. Some of the genes in those species came from Morton Grove Prairie in the first place.

January 12th, 2025 - Those seeds were planted in every needy place.

March 27th, 2025 - the prairie burned! 

Trained and certified staff and volunteers with the Friends managed the fire. 

Bit by bit health is returning. 

Congratulations to All.

Here's to another Great Year Ahead!

Endnote: Prairie Species Rediscovered Here in 2024.

Achillea millefolium (common yarrow) Agrimonia gryposepala (tall agrimony) Allium canadense (wild garlic) Amorpha canescens (leadplant) Andropogon gerardii (big bluestem) Anemone canadensis (Ccanada anemone) Anemone cylindrica (thimbleweed) Antennaria neglecta (field pussytoes) Antennaria sp. (plantaginifolia or parlinii) Apocynum cannabinum (hemp dogbane) Asclepias purpurascens (purple milkweed) Asclepias syriaca (common milkweed) Asclepias tuberosa (butterfly milkweed) Asclepias verticillata (whorled milkweed) Caenothus americanus (new jersey tea) Calamagrostis canadensis (blue joint grass) Carex stricta (tussock sedge) Carex bicknellii (bicknell's sedge) Carex buxbaumii (buxbaum's sedge) Cirsium discolor (field thistle) Comandra umbellata (bastard toadflax) Coreopsis tripteris (tall coreopsis) Cuscuta sp. (dodder sp.) Dalea purpurea (purple prairie clover) Danthonia spicata (poverty oat grass) Desmodium canadense (showy tick trefoil) Dichanthelium scribneranium (scribner's panicgrass) Dodecatheon meadia (eastern shooting star) Elymus canadensis (canada wild rye) Erechtites hieraciilfolius (american burnweed) Erigeron philadelphicus (philadelphia fleabane) Eryngium yuccifolium (rattlesnake master) Eupatorium altissimum (tall boneset) Euphorbia corollata (flowering spurge) Euthamia graminifolia (grass-leaved goldenrod) Fragaria virginiana (wild strawberry) Galium obtusum (blunt-leaf bedstraw) Gentianella quinquefolia (stiff gentian) Geum laciniatum (rough avens) Heuchera richardsonii (prairie alumroot) Helianthus grosseserratus (sawtooth sunflower) Hesperostipa spartea (porcupine grass) Hypoxis hirsuta (yellow star grass) Juncus tenuis (path rush) Lactuca canadensis (canada wild lettuce) Lespedeza capitata (round-headed bush clover) Liatris spicata (dense blazing star) Lobelia spicata (pale-spiked lobelia) Maianthemum stellatum (false solomon's seal) Monarda fistulosa (wild bergamot) Oenothera gaura (biennial gaura) Oenothera pilosella (prairie sundrops) Oligoneuron rigidum (stiff goldenrod) Oxalis stricta (tall woodsorrel) Oxypolis rigidior (stiff cowbane) Packera paupercula (balsam ragwort) Panicum vergatum (switch grass) Parthenium integrifolium (wild quinine) Pedicularis canadensis (wood betony) Penstemon digitalis (foxglove beardtongue) Persicaria amphibia (water smartweed) Phlox pilosa (downy phlox) Polygonatum biflorum (smooth Solomon's seal) Pycnanthemum virginianum (Virginia mountain mint) Ratibida pinnata (gray-headed coneflower) Roegneria subsecunda (bearded wheat grass) Rudbeckia hirta (black-eyed Susan) Rosa carolina (carolina rose) Rosa blanda (smooth wild rose) Schizachyrium scoparium (little bluestem) Scutellaria parvula var. leonardii (prairie skullcap) Silphium integrifolium (rosinweed) Silphium laciniatum (compass plant) Silphium perfoliatum (cup plant) Silphium terebinthenaceum (prairie dock) Sisyrinchium albidum (white blue-eyed grass) Solidago altissima (tall goldenrod) Solidago juncea (early goldenrod) Solidago nemoralis (gray goldenrod) Sorghastrum nutans (indian grass) Spartina pectinata (prairie cordgrass) Sporobolus heterolepis (prairie dropseed) Stachys sp. (hedge nettle sp.) Symphyotrichum ericoides (heath aster) Symphyotrichum laeve (smooth blue aster) Symphyotrichum novae-angliae (New England aster) Symphyotrichum oolentangiense (sky blue aster) Symphyotrichum pilosum (old field aster) Teucrium canadense (american germander) Thalictrum dasycarpum.(purple meadow rue) Tradescantia ohiensis (Ohio spiderwort) Trillium recurvatum (prairie trillium) Triosteum perfoliatum (late horse gentian) Verbena urticifolia (white vervain) Veronicastrum virginicum (culver's root) Viola sororia (common blue violet) Zizia aurea (golden Alexanders) Credits The language and photos of this post were assembled by the Morton Grove Prairie Nature Preserve stewards community.