Glacial Deposits.indd - Department of Geography - Geology - Illinois ...

A GIFT TO EARTH
By Ellen Dietz
A
dickcissel watches. A green heron croinks. The wind carries the sound of tires on
pavement. We stand in a fledgling prairie emerging from an old farm field, bounded by
highway and windbreaks.
In this field are the hopes of Dr. Bill Morgan, who has begun the task of restoring a fallow
agricultural field to its original cover. In the spring of 2009, with the help of several friends, a
Bison seed drill, and a borrowed tractor, he set about turning the acreage back to its prairie
roots. The land has lain fallow for several years under the auspices of the federal CRP, or
Conservation Reserve Program, sporting timothy, brome, and fescue grasses. It had cover, yes,
but not native cover.
According to the Natural Resources Conservation Service website, “The Conservation Reserve
Program reduces soil erosion, protects the Nation's ability to produce food and fiber, reduces
sedimentation in streams and lakes, improves water quality, establishes wildlife habitat, and
enhances forest and wetland resources. It encourages farmers to convert highly erodible
cropland or other environmentally sensitive acreage to vegetative cover, such as tame or native
grasses, wildlife plantings, trees, filter strips, or riparian buffers.” In keeping with this program,
Morgan has maintained the grass waterways, wind blocks, and grass cover. But it was not
enough for him.
Morgan decided the best action was to plant a prairie on the property. It went into the ground as
seeds, taken from McLean County genotypes, or plants that have adapted to local conditions,
so they are suited to the local soil and climate with the resistance, immunities, and strengths
that will enable them to assimilate quickly into new prairie. He planted a plethora of forbs and
four indomitable grasses. Gathering their strength in the soil are these:
prairie dropseed, Indian grass, Canada wild rye, and little bluestem, and a wealth of
color to come in prairie blazing star, bundle flower, silky prairie clover, compass plant,
prairie coneflower, purple coneflower, golden alexander, stiff goldenrod, partridge pea,
prairie dock, rosin weed, black-eyed susan, sweet black-eyed susan, showy tick trefoil,
rattlesnake master, false sunflower, wild quinine, bee balm, foxglove, and cup plant.
Morgan’s seeds had already taken hold in the first few months. He was counseled to expect
weeds and not much else the first year. As expected, the foxtails and other weeds dominated
the property, but Indian grass and little bluestem were already flowering by the end of the first
summer, producing seeds of their own.
What is the point Morgan sees himself as a land steward, and merely following the CRP was
not enough. Better than timothy and fescue, native grasses put their roots deeply into the soil,
fixing nitrogen and creating soil wealth. He wanted to add to the diversity of plants on the
landscape, not merely be content with a slim variety of weeds. He wanted to see more wildlife,
support a greater variety of critters, and have the satisfaction that another little corner of the
Midwest was returned to its pre-agricultural state. All said, it really boiled down to ethics.
Morgan knows that little of the original prairie remains, and he wanted to be part of returning
what he could.
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