Bell Bowl Prairie Secures INPS Support
The Indiana Native Plant Society Council has voted to add its name to this letter concerning a rare remnant prairie in neighboring Illinois.
Dear Rockford Area Stakeholders:
Bell Bowl Prairie is known as a remnant prairie, which means it has never been developed into something for human use alone. But Bell Bowl isn’t just a remnant prairie, it is Rockford’s remnant. It is a piece of living history at the fulcrum between millennia of continuity and an unknowable future. And it’s yours. You are a caretaker of this place that is special to all Illinoisians, truly, all Americans. It is a celebration of what makes Rockford unlike anywhere else in the universe.
Under the stewardship of the Greater Rockford Airport Authority, it has persisted, miraculously, between two busy runways. Despite its high-traffic location – the antithesis of nature – the airport has managed to keep Bell Bowl a haven for plant and animal species that the vast majority of Illinoisans have never seen.
This kind of dynamic ecosystem would be remarkable even if it was common. But it is not. There are so few prairie remnants like Bell Bowl left in our state that they are a rounding error away from annihilation.
Unfortunately, the GRAA has made the hard choice of improved ingress and egress of semi-trucks over this one-of-a-kind treasure of Winnebago County. Bell Bowl Prairie is a museum that breathes, our natural heritage, a piece of land connected, unbroken, to a time of wooly mammoths and the giant short-faced bear. An elk might have stopped by to eat the ancestors of the grasses we see there now or a saber-toothed cat might have lounged on its gravelly outcrops. It’s the old growth forest of the Prairie State, impossible to recreate or relocate with current science and technology.
It is the belief of the undersigned that the decision to destroy the prairie is changeable, and the road that would destroy it be redesigned so that no more wilderness, jobs or revenue will be lost. Alternate plans have been written and shared and tens of thousands people around the world have supported the continued existence of Bell Bowl.
This is an opportunity for increased visitation to the airport and its vendors, for greater visibility of the ways nature and civilization may coexist, for postage stamps, t-shirts, postcards, and a timeless story about how an airport saved a beloved patch of land by vowing to protect it. The economy isn’t threatened by the prairie; the economy and the airport’s international reputation is threatened by the protracted fight to protect the prairie and the myriad missed opportunities to celebrate it. The Chicago-Rockford International Airport is now known the world over BECAUSE of the prairie. How scores of people continue to regard the airport relies solely on the decision to save or destroy Bell Bowl Prairie.
There are several scenarios possible where the prairie and airport continue to persist and even grow. Collaborative possibilities that make everyone happy, waste less resources, mend community divisions, and promote the prosperity of all of Rockford’s residents. We are ready to collaborate.
Signed,
Natural Land Institute
Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves
Illinois Environmental Council
Illinois Native Plant Society
Severson Dells Nature Center
Prairie State Conservation Coalition
The Conservation Foundation
Eco-Justice Collaborative
Environmental Defenders of McHenry County
Small Waters Education
Sinnissippi Audubon Society
Natural Communities Native Plants
Chicago Audubon Society
Openlands
Science ATL
Konza Prairie Biological Station
Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Rock Valley
Rockford Roasting Company
Angelic Organics Learning Center
Audubon Council of Illinois
Care2
Climate Reality Project, Chicago Metropolitan Chapter
Sierra Club, Illinois Chapter
Chi-Nations Youth Council
First Nations Garden, Chicago
Businesses for Conservation and Climate Action
Chicago Botanic Garden
Pierce Downer’s Heritage Alliance
Fermilab Natural Areas
Beaver Valley Grange #1791
Illinois Ornithological Society
Plants of Concern
Prairie Rivers Network
Clifftop
Xerces Society