Tag: prairie

Prairie home companions: Why more farmers are planting native landscapes in their crop fields

While corn and soybeans dominate the Midwestern landscape today, some farmers are integrating strips of native prairie back into their fields. This conservation practice has expanded to more than a dozen states. Between two corn fields in central Iowa, Lee Tesdell walks through a corridor of native prairie grasses and wildflowers. Crickets trill as dickcissels,

Conservationists Start Project Restoring Some Of Central Illinois’ Native Prairie

DECATUR – Workers cut down a large tree at Rock Springs Conservation Area in southwest Decatur. They’re clearing invasive tree species to make way for re-seeding something that is now rare in Illinois—native tallgrass prairie. Less than one-tenth of 1% of Illinois’ native prairie still exists. According to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Illinois