Kane Forest District spotlights controlled prairie fire chicagotribune.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from chicagotribune.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The Forest Preserve District of Kane County offered a fiery presentation last week on how they maintain large stretches of wild land. Using controlled fires, the district clears out thousands of acres of prairies, woodlands and even wetlands over the fall and late winter each year. For the first time, members of the public last Thursday got an up close and personal look at one of these .
They re Whooping It Up in Kane County Over Sighting of Endangered Whooping Cranes | Chicago News wttw.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wttw.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
County forest preserve and conservation districts are charged with restoring land to the natural prairie and woodland of Illinois, but it s a slow and costly process. As a result, large swaths of district land are often leased out to farmers while awaiting restoration. Agricultural ecologists say there s a way to get a head start on restoration through regenerative agricultural practices like rotationally grazing animals and keeping a crop in the soil year-round.
The farming and grazing practice of regenerative agriculture, heralded by environmentalists as a major solution to climate change and water issues, is a conservation alternative to conventional farming. County forest preserve and conservation districts are employing it on land they can t restore themselves yet.