The Natural Land Institute is declaring a minor victory after the Chicago Rockford International Airport announced late Thursday afternoon that it will redesign a part of its expansion project that was set to destroy a rare virgin prairie it owns in Winnebago County.
The announcement came less than 48 hours after the institute filed a lawsuit against the airport, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Federal Aviation Administration. The lawsuit asked a judge to issue a restraining order to stop construction work, set to begin Monday, in Bell Bowl Prairie.
Natural Land Institute Executive Director Kerry Leigh said she’s happy but remains cautious. “This is good news,” Leigh said. “But we need to make sure this is codified in court. This is only another temporary stop. The prairie hasn’t been saved yet. People need to know that. There’s still work to be done.”
The case was set to be heard in court at 9 a.m. Friday. Leigh did not know whether a hearing would still be held.
The airport has been building a 280-acre expansion, which includes constructing a road as well as detention basins through the prairie. In August, the federally endangered rusty patched bumblebee was discovered on the prairie, temporarily halting construction. The bee typically stops foraging in November, but queens hibernate underground to emerge and lay eggs in spring.
A rusty patched bumblebee specimen in the Insects, Arachnids and Myriapods collection of the Field Museum. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)
Construction “will be suspended within the Bell Bowl Prairie until FAA consultation activities with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are concluded,” said Zack Oakley in a statement issued Thursday by the airport. Oakley is deputy director of operations and planning at the airport.
“The FAA is reinitiating consultation under the Endangered Species Act with the USFWS to evaluate impacts to the rusty patched bumblebee,” he said in the statement.
“In consultation with the FAA and USFWS, the capacity of the planned Bell Bowl Prairie detention basin will be replaced by other planned basins on RFD grounds,” the statement said. The airport expects to resume the project in spring.
Leigh said a parking lot, three detention basins and a road were set to go through the prairie, and the parking lot and road were not addressed in the statement.
She also said the Natural Resources Defense Council filed a lawsuit in March to challenge the refusal of the fish and wildlife service to designate critical habitat for the rusty patched bumblebee.
The bee has declined by 87% in the past 20 years and is likely present in 0.1% of its historical range, according to the fish and wildlife service.
The institute has been asking airport officials to meet to discuss rerouting part of the expansion so it doesn’t disturb the prairie, with no responses, Leigh said.
In the past few weeks, the institute joined forces with the Illinois Environmental Council and a chapter of the Sierra Club, among other environmental groups, to urge citizens to send letters and make phone calls asking politicians to save the prairie.
“Over 6,000 people in the state have already contacted officials and decision-makers about this,” said Tucker Barry, communications director for the environmental council
The virgin gravel prairie where the bee was discovered is part of roughly 18.4 acres of this type of prairie left in the state, according to the Illinois Natural Areas Inventory.
Construction equipment sits next to the Bell Bowl Prairie, near the Chicago Rockford International Airport on Oct. 20, 2021. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
“We are here with grief in our hearts to file a lawsuit for injunction relief … to stop the bulldozers from destroying what took 8,000 years to create,” said Leigh at a news conference Wednesday in Rockford.
Landscape architect Domenico D’Alessandro has designed an alternative concept for the airport expansion layout. His plan, which was shown at a recent land institute public meeting, includes rerouting the road that would go through the prairie.
The airport has received federal funds for several expansions over the years with support from U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin. “I continue to encourage both sides to meet on a solution that is in the best interest of the environment, regional jobs, and economic development,” Durbin said in a statement Thursday. “Today’s announcement is a good first step.”
Lindsay Keeney, conservation director at the environmental council, said saving the prairie is one step Illinois can take to lead a charge made by President Joe Biden to protect open space and curb climate change under the “America the Beautiful” plan. The plan aims to conserve 30% of U.S. lands and water by 2030.
Bell Bowl contains at least 164 species of plants, many of which are rare, and birders have found rare nesting birds such as the grasshopper sparrow. Only one-hundredth of 1% of this type of prairie remains in Illinois.
Leigh has said it is “shameful” to continue calling Illinois the Prairie State.
George Fell founded the institute in 1958 and successfully saved the prairie over the years, although it has been whittled away from its original 20 or more acres.
Oakley said in the release, “Throughout its numerous expansion and economic development projects, including this expansion, RFD has demonstrated a responsibility and awareness to potential environmental impacts.”
Sheryl DeVore is a freelance reporter.
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