Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie: Case Study

Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie is the first national tallgrass prairie in the country was established in 1996. The remnant prairie land once housed part of the former Joliet Army Ammunition Plant is now Midewin. Since the land transfer from the Department of Defense to the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Forest Service along with other federal & non-governmental partner manage the restoration of the 19,161 acres of the historical prairie habitat. In 2004 Midewin was opened to the public. Forms of degradation found in Midewin was pasture or cropland from surrounding areas, rusting munition factories and abandoned ammunitions bunkers. The Joliet Ammunition Plant was operated during World War II, Korean War and the Vietnam War. It was closed …show more content…
Midewin reference system is the Grant Creek Prairie and the Floristic quality index (FQI) to measure success. A group of professional are in charge of the restoration efforts include an ecologist, hydrologist, botanist, horticulture, invasive species ecologist, range specialist and a team leader. Midewin has a prairie master plan that drives everything that is done. Conservation assessments measure the global ranking, life history, Natural and Human land use threats, and viability. Midewin funding comes from farm leases and 70% to 90% of the costs are covered by partners like Openlands, Grand Victorian Foundation, National Forest Foundation, Natural Conservancy and Ducks Unlimited. The budget they get from the USDA is use for pay to the stuff. Midewin restoration focused in restore the prairie conditions and also to involve the community with restoration projects. Total number of people that has volunteer for Midewin is 915 volunteers with a total of 3,250 volunteer hours contributed. Volunteers are ecological monitors, trail maintenance Stewards, interpreters and conservation educator. Midewin has two full-time volunteer coordinators and every Thursday is a volunteer restoration workday. There are also a summer crew and internship available. Cattle is used for …show more content…
Midewin was the only restoration project that had a master restoration plan with all the procedures for a successful restoration. Midewin is owned the the U.S. Forest services like any other federal governmental institution they need to have a well structured plan with all necessary studies. Also, Midewin was the only restoration place that use cattle for grazing for restoration efforts and as way to raise extra money. Cattle is used to control the grasses heights; bird’s species needs different grass heights. Burning and cattle are important disturbance techniques that help mimic the restore practices used by native Americans. Midewin is using the technique “patch burn grazing” that consist a rotational grazing approach which burning is used to influence the grazing rotation of the cattle or bison (Rowe, 2010). The bison reintroduction was as an experimental project to see if in the long term there is a significant change between bison and cattle. I think that our guide was biased about the importance of grass birds that forgot to mention they reason behind the bison reintroduction specially due to the complexity of bison reintroduction. Midewin have a well define reference system as a long term target and they even are using the Floristic Quality Index (FQI) to measure biodiversity. According to Miller, the identification of reference site enables the setting of quantitative restoration target through