A portion of the Peoria County Juvenile Detention Center's land is being returned to its native prairie state.
"We have lots of acreage out here," said Brian Brown, the superintendent of the Peoria County JDC. "We really wanted to restore that to some... and it is more beautification, (a) natural habitat for pollinators."
Brown tapped Laura Bradshaw, a master naturalist with the University of Illinois Extension, to lead the effort. The U of I Extension already fields a team of volunteers for the JDC's garden program.
"It was really prime land, because there's a lot of unmowed wet areas that we're calling bioswales. And they had a lot of prairie plants already growing in there," Bradshaw said. "So that was exciting. There was milkweed. And just some other really nice prairie plants that are already there."
The work began last year by removing invasive species and planting swamp white oak saplings in the area that was to become an oak savanna. This year, a new prairie plot was established, seeding 484 plugs of native pollinator plants like showy goldenrod, golden Alexander, whirled milkweed, and purpletop grass.
Brown said it's been "kind of amazing" to see what the volunteers have done already.
"I'll just point out, when we stopped mowing some areas, it was pretty neat to see that it was natural flowers were coming up. We didn't do anything there for a while. And things just started coming up," Brown said. "Like the milkweed, and a bunch of other native seeds that must have been there and popped up. So it's pretty neat to see that."
Bradshaw said it is exciting to connect new cohesive habitats together for wildlife.
"People have really affected ecosystems and fragmented (them). So this is a good way to kind of bring that back, and give a place for pollinators like bees, and butterflies and birds and other animals to live," she said.
That's not only beneficial for the environment, but Peoria County taxpayers, too. Brown said the prairie allows staff to save money and time on maintaining the grass. It also offers educational benefits for students currently detained in the JDC.
"We take pictures, bring it in, we talk about some of the things, some of the benefits, and things like that," Brown said. "Our teachers have really incorporated that into some of the curriculum."
The historic Peoria Farm Cemetery established in the 1840s is also incorporated into the prairie project. Bradshaw said the land isn't despoiled by past farming, and is ideal for the purpose. She also sees it as a way to pay tribute to those buried there.
Moving forward, Bradshaw said she and her team of volunteers plan to continue upgrading and beautifying other wet areas on the JDC property.
"We're trying to get some good knowledge under our belt. Make sure we're doing this right," she said with a laugh.
