Local Pioneer Cemetery Prairie to Host a "Planting Party"

Along an unassuming stretch of county road in rural Grundy County, nestled between farmlands and disturbed forest, lies a small, verdant landscape teeming with life. A sea of delicate white flowering spurge backdrops the rare purple clustered poppy mallow, the unmistakable yellow and red goat’s rue, and an unusual native prickly pear cactus. Many exceptional plants, and the pollinators who favor them, live and thrive alongside the weathered headstones of Short Pioneer Cemetery Prairie.

In death, the early European settlers interred at Short Cemetery inadvertently gave the plot a new lease on life. Saved from the plow, some of the last vestiges of Illinois’ once expansive prairies persist here. In 1988, the site was dedicated as an Illinois Nature Preserve, legally protecting it in perpetuity.

Legal protection does not guarantee ecological protection. The Illinois Nature Preserve Commission is tasked with caring for more than 600 nature preserves state-wide. It needs the help of many more hands and hearts to deliver the necessary management for restoring and maintaining the sites in its care. Without dedicated volunteers, the pressures of encroaching invasive species and suppression of natural fire would erase this one-acre oasis from the earth.

Since 2019, volunteer stewards like Mike Campbell, supported by Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves, have worked diligently to protect the preserve from invasive threats and to partner with other agencies and adjacent landowners to restore old fields that buffer the preserve.

"The prairie needs help," says Stone Hansard, a field representative for Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves. "By restoring the land around the intact, original prairie, we provide a layer of protection for it, while also creating an opportunity for remnant vegetation to reclaim the land over time."

On September 14th, from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., volunteers will gather for a "Planting Party" to restore diverse prairie to one of the adjacent former farm fields. One thousand locally-sourced native plant seedlings were provided by The Nature Conservancy in Indiana to support the effort. Many caring hands are needed to give these seedlings a new home on the prairie. Participants are encouraged to drop by when they can, dressed ready to get a little dirty.

To RSVP or learn more, visit the event page on Facebook or contact stone@friendsilnature.org.