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The Nature Conservancy in Indiana Indiana Homepage Where We Work How We Work Ways of Giving Journey With Nature Events News Press Releases Volunteer Contact |
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Kankakee Sands Restoration Project Office
American PloversPhoto © TNC
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History of the Project
In 1996, the Conservancy purchased 7,200 acres of agricultural land that effectively reconnects three natural areas: Conrad Savanna, Beaver Lake Prairie State Nature Preserve and Willow Slough Fish and Wildlife Area.
The Efroymson Restoration at Kankakee Sands is designed to heal the intervening landscape, effectively creating a single, landscape-scale conservation area. Habitat fragmentation is the biggest threat to the long-term survival of Indiana prairie and savanna. Small, isolated prairies and barrens lose species with time—especially the rare and vulnerable species that need large expanses of habitat for their survival. Without taking direct action, these remnant natural areas will, with time, become mere shadows of themselves—species-poor relicts of a once rich ecosystem.
The Restoration is designed to alleviate this threat. Where now isolated grasslands seemingly float in a sea of agriculture, the restoration will create connections that allow these remnants to communicate ecologically with one another. What once was row crop will be transformed over time into a botanically diverse mosaic of prairie, savanna and wetland, altering the landscape dynamics of the Kankakee Sands Macrosite into a viable system.
The Conservancy's Work at Kankakee Sands
Less than one percent of Indiana’s prairies remain. Kankakee Sands—one of the Conservancy’s largest restoration efforts in the country—is rejuvenating a disappearing landscape and providing vital habitat for butterflies, amphibians and grassland birds.
To restore this landscape, stewards must collect native plant seeds to create this mosaic. To help create the diversity of plant life needed, the Conservancy's Indiana program established a 120-acre seed nursery on the Sands. It produces enough seed to restore about 500 acres per year. In order to do this Last year, they collected almost 1,700 pounds of native seed representing more than 390 species. If purchased on the open market, these seeds would have cost more than $1 million, assuming the species were even available for purchase. Last November, 680 acres of former soybean fields were converted back to native prairie—perhaps the richest planting of this size ever completed in the country.
Although there were more than 30 species of grasses and sedges in the plantings, the Conservancy purposely did not plant seed of the three common grasses that dominate most prairie plantings: big bluestem, Indian grass and switch grass. By allowing the initial planting to establish without these dominant grasses, the prairie should be more diverse. When the slower growing species become established, these dominant grasses will be added into the landscape.
More than four miles of field ditches were removed to create wetlands and wet prairie — among the rarest habitat types in the region. In all, the Conservancy has restored and planted more than 5,000 acres of grasslands and wetlands at the site.
Plants and animals are responding to the restoration work. Some of the restored fields now support more than 350 species of native plants. The quality of habitat throughout the restoration also is being enriched, as land stewards continually augment plantings on lesser fields.
*To view a downloadable pamphlet of many of the plant species found at
the Kankakee Sands Native Plant Nursery, please click here.*
Grassland Birds
Grassland birds show a consistently steeper, and more geographically widespread decline than any other group of North American species. This decline is directly tied to a loss of habitat.
A recent National Audubon Society study, The State of the Birds, found that 70 percent of grassland bird species are experiencing significant declines.
Four of the 25 fastest declining bird species in North America breed in the prairie and wetlands at Kankakee Sands:
Henslow’s sparrow (No. 3),
grasshopper sparrow (No. 20),
field sparrow (No. 24) and
northern bobwhite (No. 25).
Three of these declining species rely on the site as a stopover during migration:
lesser yellowlegs (No. 2),
king rail (No. 4) and
short-eared owl (No. 14).
In addition to these species that are undergoing rapid declines across the United States, another 13 bird species found at Kankakee Sands are listed as threatened or endangered in Indiana. A few of these are the northern harrier, upland sandpiper, American bittern and black tern. In Indiana, Wilson’s phalarope breeds only at the restoration. In total, more than 200 species have been recorded at the restoration site since 2001. A partial listing of birds found in the Kankakee Sands can be found here.
Amphibians
A recent survey on the world’s amphibians shows that one in three species of frogs, toads and salamanders are in danger of going extinct. Much like grassland birds, habitat loss is the largest threat they face. Access the Global Amphibian Assessment to find out more on the conservation status of the world's known species of frogs, toads, salamanders, and caecilians.
Despite these declines, places such as Kankakee Sands prove that restoring habitat can make a positive impact. As the site is restored, vital wetlands are being created, which once again will allow water to flow through the prairie and create shallow pools of water.
Frogs and toads are rediscovering these new wetlands. So far, they have expanded their breeding to encompass every wetland throughout the restoration. In early summer, wet prairie crawls with newly metamorphosed leopard frogs — eight species of frogs are known to breed here. Tiger salamanders — large, robust salamanders that burrow in the ground — also were found breeding last year.
Other good news for amphibians and the project as a whole is that the high diversity of plantings used to restore the site has increased the number of insect and vertebrate species into surrounding restoration areas - one of the major conservation goals for this project.
Prairie Management
In 2007, a prairie management technique called "patch-burn grazing," where cattle is used to reduce overabundant grass species. The cattle graze on post-burn grass shoots throughout the growing season which will reduce the grass cover to create more space for wildflowers. Later in the fall, forb seeds will be added to the grazed areas for germination in the spring, 2008. This process will continue the next year with the cattle grazing on an other burned area to start the process over again.
A Grassland Restoration Network Project
In order to make connecting easier with those working in restoration and conservation efforts across the Midwest, a group of restoration practitioners, land managers and scientists have formed the Grassland Restoration Network, or GRN, in order to increase communication and cross-link information in order to improve developments in grassland restoration across the nation.
