Goose Lake Prairie, Illinois
This bird conservation region also held a great oak savanna landscape that is today in serious peril. Some of the main threats include:
- urbanization
- recreational development
- agricultural expansion
Birds like the Greater Prairie-Chicken and Henslow’s Sparrow still persist in this conservation region but need solid conservation efforts to stop their decline. In the Oak Savannah, Red-headed Woodpeckers are still fairly common but have been declining at a rapid pace.
Red-headed Woodpecker
Some great places to find prairie habitat in BCR 22 are:
- Goose Lake Prairie State Natural Area (Illinois)
- Tallgrass Prairie National Reserve (Kansas)
- Nachusa Grasslands (Illinois)
- Deer Run Forest Preserve (Illinois)
- Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie (Illinois)
While much of the Tallgrass Prairies have been lost, there is still time to convert farmland into prairie. With a wide effort from private landowners as well as some government incentives, prairie conservation can increase, as well as the birds of the prairie.
Another view of Goose Lake Prairie
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Good info, if sad. I live in one of the last remaining stands of longleaf pine savannah. Once it covered hundreds of millions of acres across the South. Now very few stands are left (perhaps 3-4 million acres, altogether.) Fortunately “The Nature Conservancy” has snatched up about 900 acres down the road from me & they’re working on restoring it to it’s natural state.
Lana – without the Nature Conservancy, we would be in a much sadder state… hopefully they, along with millions of nature lovers will be able to conserve much more land!!
Yes, kudos to TNC, certainly! My husband & I are seriously considering volunteering at our local site (the Abita Creek Flatwoods Preserve.) If everyone did just a LITTLE, a whole lot would get done.
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