This year marks the official beginning of the Poplar Creek prairie and savanna restoration. This was the year the first brush was cut, the first weed patches plowed up, the first wild seeds gathered for planting on the site.
Throughout the history of the preserve system various supplicants have come before the county board, which governs the preserves, asking for a piece of this land–often for laudable purposes. The University of Illinois once asked for forest-preserve land to build a branch campus. In the World War II era, the U.S. War Department wanted a site for an atomic-research lab. In every case the board turned them down flat. We reminded the board in 1984 of that honorable tradition, and they responded by unanimously voting down the landfill proposal.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
With the buckthorns gone, the seeds of native savanna plants, most of them gathered by volunteers who picked over unprotected sites, will be planted this fall and next spring. Most of the seeds will be of plants of the summer and fall flora. The grove already has a fairly good population of plants that flower in spring, such as rue anemone and shooting star. Once the native plants are reestablished, the occasional prescribed burn will keep the buckthorn from returning.
Poplar Creek also supports healthy populations of those prairie birds I mentioned earlier, and there are even coyotes living on the land.
