Extensive, multiyear restoration efforts at the Forest Preserve District of Will County’s Sand Ridge Savanna Nature Preserve have been acknowledged with an “Excellence in Ecological Restoration” award from the Chicago Wilderness Alliance.
The district received the award on January 17 at a “Celebration of Conservation” banquet at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle. The award provides recognition for excellence in management of natural communities and sites and demonstrates on-the-ground commitment to the Biodiversity Recovery Plan established by Chicago Wilderness, a regional collaborative of hundreds of partner organizations and individuals working to implement landscape-scale approaches to conservation.
Sand Ridge Savanna in Custer Township is a 941-acre preserve that contains a 625-acre state-designated nature preserve. Almost all the former agricultural acreage at Sand Ridge Savanna has been restored to prairie through work by the Forest Preserve’s conservation department.
Seeding of the site is performed annually, and some areas are over seeded. A prescribed fire program burns the site every two-to-three years. The hydrology of the preserve has been restored by closing ditches and removing drain tiles. Also, beavers have returned to some areas of the prairie, and their activity is improving land adjacent to streams and creeks. Sand Ridge Savanna is monitored yearly for plants of concern, upland birds, state-threatened rattlesnake master (eryngium) stem borer moth, and ornate box turtles.
The Forest Preserve has received Excellence in Ecological Restoration awards in the past for restoration work at Braidwood Dunes and Savanna Nature Preserve (Gold, 2021; Platinum, 2013), Hickory Creek Barrens Nature Preserve (Platinum, 2014), Hadley Valley Preserve (Silver, 2019), and Lockport Prairie East (Gold, 2017). The 2023 award for Sand Ridge Savanna is Gold.
For more information on the Forest Preserve District of Will County, visit ReconnectWithNature.org.