Prairie Tract in Chicago - On the Road to Restoration

WHO: Audubon-Chicago Region

WHERE: Bartel Grassland

WHEN:

The Bartel Grassland Restoration Project is a large prairie restoration that began in the 1990s.  It is a group effort sustained through a partnership of the Bartel Grassland Volunteers, The Forest Preserve District of Cook County, Audubon-Chicago Region, CorLands, the U.S.Army Corps of Engineers and Thorn Creek Audubon.

The grassland part of the property is approximately 380 acres of fallow farmland that was primarily wet-mesic prairie prior to settlement by Europeans in the early nineteenth century. Through the efforts of the sponsor groups and volunteers, the Bartel Grassland will be restored to a native grassland/wetland complex.

While there are several species of native prairie plants now growing at Bartel, the plant community is presently dominated by European and Asian exotics. Bartel volunteers are engaged in activities designed to restore as many of the original plant species as possible through seed gathering at local prairie remnants.

Removal of the field tiles that drained away the water has resulted in a return to a condition closer to the wetter soils that were present there in pre-settlement times.

Grassland birds have returned to Bartel in large numbers. Bobolinks, Savannah Sparrows, Henslow's Sparrows and other grassland species have increased in response to the improvements already made, and Short-eared Owls and Northern Harriers have returned to winter at the site after decades of absence. 

Volunteers planting sedges in a prairie pond

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