Pictures do indeed say a thousand words. On Wednesday night, a small group gathered on the outskirts of Rockford standing beside an ancient prairie. There’s a sense of foreboding in the late winter cold. You can almost hear the drum in the picture. When dawn arrived the next morning, a bulldozer began plowing a path through ancient Bell Bowl Prairie, a glacial remnant, one of the last intact prairies in the so-called Prairie State. Birders, botanizers, and conservation advocates are still coming to grips with the destruction of a bountiful state natural area, its soil, microbes, fungi, plants, and insects lost forever.
This is a very sad day and the frustrating thing about it is it didn't have to be this way. There were many good alternatives presented to the board. I'm so sorry that many have no regard for our environment and history. When we talk about leaving things for our children this would have been a golden opportunity , now lost.
It grieves me to click the heart and say I love this piece, because it does break my heart. But thank you for writing it. And thank you to everyone who tried to stop the destruction of this native prairie.
This is a very sad day and the frustrating thing about it is it didn't have to be this way. There were many good alternatives presented to the board. I'm so sorry that many have no regard for our environment and history. When we talk about leaving things for our children this would have been a golden opportunity , now lost.
It grieves me to click the heart and say I love this piece, because it does break my heart. But thank you for writing it. And thank you to everyone who tried to stop the destruction of this native prairie.