The "Restoration" of Chicago's Nature

This post, which may, or may not turn out to be a rant, was inspired by Growing in Chicago


The city of Chicago has a great habit of "restoring" wetlands when the land wasn't wet, when wild lands, and what few trees, in pre-industrial days were the natural skyscrapers.  Take this "restoration" for example.  Blogger Beth Botts recounts a harrowing tale of how the Army Corps of Engineers tried to "restore" Washington Park to its natural "wetland."     

Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

Fredrick Law Olmsted, the parks' creator, first saw a flat field void of trees.  His initial plans included adding some trees surrounded by a meadow, even inviting sheep to graze, which, if the grass is natural prairie Switchgrass, ends up being more beneficial to not only the sheep, but also the grass.  Grazing sheep help spread the seeds of Switchgrass, and without this natural animal grazing, the prairie needs to undergo a controlled fire.  I'm sure that in the late 19th century, Chicagoans were frightened by even the thought of fire.


Paul Cornell, who was most likely a money hungry, corporate leech, strongly "encouraged" Olmsted to include some sporting areas, because somehow it's better to sport next to a meadow.  Oh, I'm sure Cornell had every intention of either making this park only accessable to the elite or by charging a fee, but we won't mention or talk of this.  (It's not even like any of this has any claim, I'm just assuming that anyone who wants to turn a park into a sporting area has to be in it for the money).  


Here's an old picture of Washington Park, once again, by way of Wikipedia.

Thus, this creation mythology of how Washington Park is a natural wetland is born.  I'm all for parks being restored, but how about bringing in some trained professionals and actually restoring the land to its original habitat?  I mean, Switchgrass isn't that ugly and boring to look at.  Panicum virgatum is being used as a renewable energy and all those great native animals feed on the plant.  It's not just Switchgrass either, but the other hundreds of different varieties of tall-grass prairie.  If we would only look at the natural grasses that once flourished on our land, we would see the beauty (and deer!).  

Less than 0.01% of tall-grass prairie remains in the Midwest, and hey, that's where the tall-grass prairies grow.  Along with demise of the tall-grass prairie were buffalo, rabbits, deer, and elk.  Insects and bees left, too.  Let's also not mention how many awesome, cute little birds must have been affected as well.  It's sad, and a shame that we, as humble, humane people who constantly boast about being "green," treat our land, our nature, our provider.  

No wonder some people say we're doomed.  Perhaps we're not though.  No, surely we're not.  If only we would all take heed from this warning, this seemingly insignificant warning, and pay attention to nature, even if only for a mere five minutes.  We can learn something about the past, the land, about ourselves.