Other opportunities may be available, just inquire. Sign up through the Forest Preserves of Cook County online volunteer portal. STPS seeks to preserve a piece of Chicagoland as it was when (Native American) humans and their ecosystems functioned in unison. An ancient land still alive in a time long after these incomparably diverse and dense environments disappeared faster and on a greater scale than any others before or since. Testament to its age, Wolf Road Prairie and STPS also host the Franzosenbusch Heritage Project, the oldest building in Westchester and a museum about the local settlers who would displace the original stewards of the prairies and savannas. We want to spread the understanding that our land will benefit us best when it most benefits the rest of life. Functional ecosystems function for everything that lives there. Through the preservation of Green Infrastructure instead of the development of more artificial, "Grey Infrastructure," we have our most efficient means of water management, carbon sequestration, air filtration, pollution remediation, erosion prevention, and much more; in addition to being an opportunity for greater mental and physical health, recreation, learning, and therapy. Today, only 1 percent of 1 percent of original tall grass prairie remains in Illinois. There was once 21.6 million acres of it. Now we've about 2,500. If you took 1 percent of 1 percent of Wolf Road Prairie (76.5 acres), the area would be but the size of two parking spaces. However the prairie-savanna mosaic that once covered the state, supported phenomenal biodiversity. If all the preserved nature within 50 miles of Chicago was made into a national park, it would be the most biodiverse in the country in proportion to its size. Because of this diversity, the prairie-savanna complex thrived not despite, but because of harsh storms, floods, fires, blizzards, and more, given millennia of collaborative adaptation. But if you want to understand this rarity for yourself, the only thing to do is come and see, hear, smell, touch, and feel what the prairie has had in store for all these ages. So long it's been here, yet so few will ever experience it on their own. In 1993, Save the Prairie Society launched the Natural Areas Rescue Fund (NARF), a land acquisition project to save imperiled “orphan” natural areas and threatened and endangered species and to offer new choices and solutions to halt and reverse the loss of biodiversity in Illinois. NARF has been involved in saving four natural areas — Macoupin Woods, Mineral Marsh, Hancock Savanna and Tomlin Timber Nature Preserve. In 1998, STPS absorbed a chapter of the Westchester Historical Society, spawning the Franzosenbusch Heritage Project. FHP now intensively researches and recreates the history of German settlement in Chicagoland, fashioning a piece of living history that resides amongst the same living ecosystems which once surrounded the prairie house itself. In addition to a museum and nature center, the house also makes a delightful venue and conference hall accessible to the public for a variety of events, from yoga classes to film-viewings to performances. We are proud to be collaborators in the comprehensive revival of such a storied history as ours. In 2020, STPS absorbed the Salt Creek Greenway Project as well, an effort to reconnect the fragmented natural environments within the Salt Creek watershed. This has afforded us a lot of resources with which we are trying to expand our collaboration throughout the rich Chicagoland environmentalist community. If you're interested in working with us on events, projects, experiments, seminars, and just about anything else, contact us through this page, or any of the following e-mails:
STPS general e-mail (accessible to all board members): [email protected]
President of STPS: [email protected]
Site Manager and Outreach: [email protected]
Events and Outreach: [email protected]
