Spring-Summer 2008
Prose
Poetry
Artwork
Photograph of bluebells by LeAnn Spencer
Prairie From Above
Wolf Road Prairie is an oasis in the crowded western suburbs of Chicago, surrounded by busy roads, strip malls and subdivisions. In the early 20th Century, this important prairie remnant very nearly succumbed to development but those plans were derailed thanks to the Great Depression. Even today, slabs of concrete delineate the location of early sidewalks. Despite that, this site is one of the most important in Illinois, containing a bur oak savanna, a wetland and a prairie. It is host to 360 species of plants and 130 species of birds. A dedicated Nature Preserve, Wolf Road Prairie is the largest black-soil prairie remnant east of the Mississippi River. Its 80 acres is less than a sliver of the tens of thousands of acres that once blanketed our continent’s mid-section. Photographer John Hill’s visual essay illustrates the magnitude of that loss via a series of aerial photos. Wolf Road Prairie is tended by the Save the Prairie Society.
Click on photos for enlargements.
Glimpse of the past
The restored 1850s farmhouse at Wolf Road Prairie with its garden of wildflowers gives visitors an idea of what this area might have been like before urban sprawl.
Cosmopolitan oasis
This aerial with the Chicago skyline and Lake Michigan in far background illustrates how dwarfed Wolf Road Prairie is by the urban area and serves as a metaphor for the disappearing prairie throughout our continent.
The neighbors
Snow emphasizes the flatness of the prairie, and the impingement and entrapment of this site by neighboring buildings that menaced this 12,000-year-old landscape by marching right up to the prairie’s edge.
Water's mark
The standing water illustrates the riparian aspects of the prairie. The vegetation slows the water transit and clarifies the water while irrigating the plants and replenishing the water table.
Deep roots
In dry seasons, the grasses and deep root systems of native prairie plants retain moisture and insulate the water table from evaporation but not drawdown by the human population.
Text and photos copyright © 2008. John Hill. All rights reserved.