Restoring Prairie, Woods, and Pond

“Many envi­ron­men­tal books and sto­ries are tales of woe; this one isn’t. Lau­rie Lawlor writes about a com­mu­ni­ty project in Eagle, Wis­con­sin, that turned an eight-acre dump­ing ground into a nature trail for chil­dren. The Eagle Nature Trail orga­ni­za­tion includes Dave Traver, a library board mem­ber; Jean Weed­man, an expe­ri­enced prairie restor­er; and a cadre of mir­a­cle-mak­ing volunteers.

Writ­ing for mid­dle grades and above, Lawlor pro­vides an overview of the nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al his­to­ry of the land. This land was (and is) trea­sured by the Native Amer­i­cans who were removed.

By the time the vol­un­teers began to make the trail, the land was over­grown with inva­sive buck­thorn, gar­lic mus­tard and more. Dumped chain-link fences, tires, shat­tered bot­tles and oth­er junk lit­tered the for­est floor. Under the detri­tus, an ephemer­al pond, prairie and woods seemed to await renew­al. As vol­un­teers cleared inva­sives, plant­ed and sprout­ed, native trees and prairie plants took hold. The project began to bring joy and pride to the com­mu­ni­ty, espe­cial­ly the chil­dren walk­ing the trail between the ele­men­tary school and Alice Bak­er Memo­r­i­al Library.

Lawlor includes spe­cif­ic sto­ries of nature adven­tures in and around the trail. Chil­dren hurl milk­weed pods to dis­trib­ute seeds to make more habi­tats for mon­archs and oth­er pol­li­na­tors. They learn about how frogs can enter a frozen dor­man­cy in win­ter. Third-graders help plant prairie plants each spring. The chang­ing sea­sons move plants and ani­mals through col­or­ful and excit­ing cycles of rebirth. This sea­son­al rebirth has seen an annu­al bio­di­ver­si­ty increase since the ini­tial 2010 plant inventory.

Find fam­i­ly lessons and activ­i­ties for each sea­son. Dis­cov­er moti­va­tion to walk the trail. Be inspired to par­tic­i­pate on any lev­el. Plant native species in your yard or a pot on the porch. Par­tic­i­pate in restora­tion projects in your com­mu­ni­ty. Lawlor and the vol­un­teers will inspire you.

Euro­pean set­tlers, on the whole, did­n’t val­ue the nat­ur­al sys­tems in Amer­i­ca. And they did­n’t have a plan for wise use. When chil­dren learn to care for native species and sys­tems, they become adults who will care for the plan­et. And — we need that.” (Amy Lou Jenk­ins, Wis­con­sin Sier­ra Club Mag­a­zine, 11 Sep 2023)