Restoration work at Springbrook Prairie in Naperville wins award
The DuPage County Forest Preserve District recently won the platinum Excellence in Ecological Restoration Award from Chicago Wilderness for its work at the 1,829-acre Springbrook Prairie Forest Preserve in Naperville.
Springbrook Prairie is a regionally significant large grassland habitat and birder's paradise. Once a combination of row crops and sod farm, it is now an Illinois state nature preserve and a land and water reserve. These Illinois Nature Preserves Commission designations provide it with extra protection and limit certain recreational activities.
Springbrook Prairie hosts a grassland bird community that is home to state-endangered northern harriers, state-threatened barn owls, short-eared owls, dickcissels, grasshopper sparrows, bobolinks, black rails, king rails, upland sandpipers, Wilson's phalaropes, American and least bitterns, black terns, common gallinules and black-billed cuckoos.
Spring Brook Creek No. 2, which runs through Springbrook Prairie, is deemed the highest quality stream in DuPage County, so the forest preserve district set out to protect it by removing an internal road and moving trails and developed areas to the outside of the preserve.
Restoration work along Spring Brook added more natural twists and turns to the waterway and created a wider, shallower bank along the stream. These changes have slowed the flow of water, improved aquatic habitat and allowed the creek to more easily pour over its banks and into the preserve during heavy rains.
Combined with a small remnant fen, wetlands, grasslands, prairies and a sinuous creek, Springbrook Prairie represents decades of dedication and perseverance.
The Chicago Wilderness' Excellence in Ecological Restoration accreditation program recognizes large, high-quality natural areas and the organizations that manage them. The award showcases the region's best examples of organizations, individuals, natural areas and places that benefit both wildlife and people.
Chicago Wilderness is a regional alliance leading strategy to preserve, improve and expand nature and quality of life.