Students at Bolingbrook High School are restoring 12 acres on school grounds to a native prairie that likely included such plant species as milkweed and big bluestem grasses.
Already, some of those plants are starting to grow from seeds purchased from a $1,000 Illinois Schoolyard Action Grant.
Students, some as volunteers and others as part of a zoology class, have been getting their hands dirty this summer removing invasive species to give the native plants room to thrive.
Senior Arantza Mayen, 17, was recently digging out the teasel plant, which has an 8-foot-deep root system and can be identified by its prickly stem and leaves and purple or dark flowers on its head.
“We are trying to find ways to kill the plant,” Mayen said.
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Mayen, who has been volunteering at the prairie since she was a sophomore, said learning about the biodiversity has been interesting.
“I was surprised that so many different kinds of plants grow in the prairie,” she said. “I also didn’t know that invasive plants grow in this area.”
Science teacher Pat Gennardo, who manages the prairie site and teaches the zoology class, said more than 2,000 students from the school have visited the prairie over the past several years, and what’s happening there has been incorporated into other subjects at the high school and other schools within the Valley View School District.
“Math students can visit the prairie to count plants, and English students can go there to write about the sights and sounds of the prairie,” she said. “The prairie offers many opportunities for learning, and most students seem to enjoy being out there.”
The site is also creating habitats for native insects and animals, including the monarch butterfly, which needs milkweed to lay its eggs and to nuture its caterpillars..
“We have three different types of milkweed species out there,” Gennardo said. “It’s great to see the plants. We’ve also actually seen monarch butterflies out there this summer.”
Students and staff have been working in the prairie since 2013, with an eventual goal of transforming the entire nature area into a high-quality prairie site, Gennardo said..
“Even though it’s going to take a lot of work, students will learn a lot during the process,” she said.
In 1820, Illinois once had 22 million acres of prairie, mainly in the northern two-thirds of the state, according to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. By 1900, most of the Illinois prairie had been swallowed by development or converted for agricultural purposes
Ruzich is a freelance reporter.
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