Midewin Prairie restoration halted due to federal funding freeze

Restoration funding at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie in Wilmington is paused because of the federal funding freeze.

This pause affects local jobs along with the restoration.

In 2023, Openlands, with its partner The Wetlands Initiative, received a $1.5 million America the Beautiful Challenge grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for its project “Grassland Habitat Expansion and Restoration across Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie in Illinois,” according to a 2023 news release from Openlands.

The project’s goal was to transform Grant Creek, “a Forest Service-designated priority watershed the size of 1,000 football fields into healthy prairie, savanna, and floodplain wetland habitats, according to the release.

“The target restoration site shares a mile-long border with the existing 1,200-acre bison pasture grassland complex and represents a unique opportunity to restore an entire stream corridor,” according to the release.

Emily Reusswig, vice president of conservation and policy at Openlands, said Openlands works with a subgrantee partner – The Wetlands Initiative – and the family-owned Homer Tree Service to do the work on-site.

“They’ve been taking out of a lot of invasive trees and shrubs and prepping it for the next phase of restoration, which will be about seeding and restoring the hydrology of the site,” Reusswig said.

Reusswig said the project, which is 30% completed, currently has approximately $475,000 in invoices that are not being reimbursed with the freeze.

“We’ve been reimbursed for activities up until October 2024,” Reusswig said. “Everything after that has not been reimbursed…it potentially could mean they don’t get paid.”

As of Friday, Openlands had only been reimbursed “for a little less of $100,000, Reusswig said

“We did seek reimbursement at the beginning of the year. But we have not received that,” Reusswig said. “And we put together invoices for every expense up until the last day when we received notice that our grant was frozen.”

Reusswig said they received notice on the grant being frozen on Feb. 13.

She’s also concerned about the future jobs of the people who were working on the almost 1,400-acre project if the funding isn’t unfrozen.

“These are not just contractors and subgrantees,” Reusswig said. “These are truly partners and worked for many years with both of these companies. And so we’re committed to doing everything we can to support one another at this time.”

Why the restoration is important

The tallgrass prairie – native to North America – once covered a significant portion of the Midwest and included 6-foot tall grass species that created “a complex ecosystem that hosts many plants, insects, and birds,” according to Midewin.

Now that only “fragments of the original tallgrass prairie ecosystem remain,” Ilinois prairies are “globally imperiled because most have been converted to other land uses,” according to Midewin.

Reusswig said to stop the work and then restart it at a later date could cost $15,000. The Wetlands Initiative had “two or three” people working on the project along with employees from Homer Tree Service.

“They were planning on being there until April,” Reusswig said. “To divert them to other projects all of a sudden is a big deal, along with all of that heavy machinery. But everything is up in the air.”