These Two Sites Had Been The Same

A few hundred feet apart, these two areas are linked. 
Formerly pasture, both had been "protected" conservation land that had been invaded by buckthorn. 
The site on the left was on its own. Buckthorn is nearly all that’s survives. 

For that patch, the conservation goal had failed. 

                  Nature Left Alone                                Nature Conserved and Restored                                                  

In the early days of biodiversity conservation and restoration, some people argued that it would be wrong to "play God" by meddling with nature on land set aside from human manipulation. "Leave it alone!" they insisted. We don't much hear that argument any more. The scene below is partly why.

                                                Nature Left "to Take its Course"

Compared to cared-for land nearby, this scene is shocking. Buckthorn has now replaced nearly all other plants. The birds, pollinators and other animals are also gone. We hadn't found time to get to this opening. Indeed, we lost a few more also. Restoration is work and takes time. We remember purple milkweed here where young buckthorn now rules, as well as Kalm's brome and big bluestem.

In 1977, when restoration began at Somme, the land was fallow former farmland. The areas that originally seemed most worth our help were former pasture openings among young trees and brush. In them, though most original plant species were gone, some "prairie species" survived, a few in one opening, different ones in others.   

The land now called Somme had then been set aside as "Cook County Forest Preserves" decades earlier. Would more trees be best here? We knew that the Forest Preserve concept also embraced prairies. The charter of the Preserve District expressed it goal: 

"to restore and restock, protect and preserve ... such lands together with their flora and fauna as nearly as may be, in their natural state and condition."

As the science of ecology developed, it was determined that the natural state of the Somme preserves included prairie, savanna, oak woodland, and wetland. All needed and deserved stewardship.

But maples, box elders, dogwood, and buckthorns had been gradually increasing around the edges of the relatively-stable, higher-quality prairie and savanna openings ... and in the formerly-grazed woodlands as well. Seed blown on the wind or carried by birds was successfully able to complete with existing "old field" vegetation where the turf of pasture plants was weakest. 

Our innocent goal back then was to expand the openings that contained the rare plants and spread seed from each to each (and other surviving remnants nearby). We sought to restore the diversity that, with occasional burns, would resist invasion by brush and malignant weeds. We cut, burned, and gathered and sowed seed. There were challenges of many kinds, ecological and bureaucratic. A few openings, like the one above, were lost to brush. But bit by bit, most were expanded and enriched until, after 49 years of work and ecosystem self-healing, they looked like the photo below:

                                                Nature Restored and Conserved

Here the plants in bloom include wild quinine (white), prairie coreopsis (yellow), and butterfly milkweed (orange). Visible by foliage and soon to bloom are lead plant, purple prairie clover, dropseed grass, and early goldenrod. Earlier this year we saw here shooting star, violet wood sorrel, bastard toadflax, wood betony, Seneca snakeroot, prairie violet, and many others. Each week it's different, throughout the growing season.

The animals thrive among them. Birds seen and heard in the area of this photo include orchard orioles, eastern kingbirds, indigo buntings, ruby-throated hummingbirds, kestrels, and another long list. Rare butterflies and other pollinators abound. Fungi, bacteria, and likely hundreds of species of rare micro-organisms are part of the still-recovering ancient ecosystem here. We still fight such invaders as teasel, crown vetch, and reed canary grass in some areas. It's not quick. But successes give us confidence and inspiration. 

Bless the hundreds of people who have done and are doing this good work. We remember that it could all have been lost. We are inspired by hope for its future, including the still neglected areas ... as we can get to them. 

Endnote

These two photos were taken a few days apart. The first shows a former "old field" opening on the edge of former prairie and savanna near the north edge of Somme Woods. Despite dramatic improvements in most areas, these 255 acres still have scores of acres waiting for help.

The second photo shows a formerly-similar opening on the edge of now-restored prairie and savanna in the 85-acre Somme Prairie Grove, where restoration started much earlier.