One of the last remaining prairies in Illinois, Bell Bowl Prairie, is slated for destruction as part of the expansion of the Chicago Rockford International Airport. Rare, threatened, and endangered species will be destroyed. The prairie is located at approximately 6045 Cessna Drive in the city of Rockford, Winnebago County, Illinois.

Expansion at the Chicago Rockford International Airport can be done responsibly and in ways that do not negatively impact the Bell Bowl Prairie or its rare plants and animals. Feasible, alternative plans exist and can be implemented to benefit the prairie and the Rockford community.

Read about Bell Bowl Prairie’s rich history and importance in a comprehensive statement by prairie expert John White.

View the timeline of events around Save Bell Bowl Prairie efforts.

Bell Bowl Prairie is a Category I Illinois Natural Areas Inventory (INAI) site, a designation granted by state biologists that reflects the site’s very high ecological quality. Bell Bowl Prairie contains some of the most intact and undisturbed natural plant communities found anywhere in the state of Illinois. There is less than one-hundredth of one percent (0.01%) of prairie remaining in the state of Illinois. Gravel prairies such as Bell Bowl occur on steep slopes, usually facing south or southwest, with abundant, low-growing grasses and wildflowers. Only a tiny fraction of this specific prairie type remains today in Illinois. Losing 5 acres of high quality gravel hill prairie is an unacceptable loss that cannot be mitigated with any effort known to science.

Several state and federally Threatened and Endangered species occur at Bell Bowl Prairie.

The Federally Endangered rusty patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis) was documented at Bell Bowl Prairie in August 2021. Young queens of this species overwinter in the soil. Ideal overwintering sites include uncompacted, sandy soils, abandoned rodent nests, downed logs, and soft soil under leaf litter. The soil at Bell Bowl is sandy and gravelly, uncompacted, with abundant low growing vegetation, and frequent animal burrows, providing ideal habitat. Several acres of trees and shrubs surround the prairie to the south and west. Impacts to this habitat could result in an illegal “take” (killing) of this federally Endangered species.

The site also supports habitat and contains many plants that co-occur with the federally Threatened prairie bush clover (Lespedeza leptostachya), which is known to occur in the region. As of the November 2019 Environmental Assessment, no search for this rare species had been conducted.

Threatened and Endangered species seen at Bell Bowl Prairie and on Rockford Airport grounds include:

• Federally Endangered rusty patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis)

• State Threatened Franklin’s ground squirrel (Poliocitellus franklinii)

• State Endangered prairie false dandelion (Nothocalais cuspidata)

• State Endangered large-flowered penstemon (Penstemon grandiflorus)

• State Endangered cat’s claw (Mimosa nuttallii)

• State Endangered loggerhead shrike (Lanius ludovicianus)

• State Threatened black-billed cuckoo (Coccyzus erythropthalmus)

• State Endangered northern harrier (Circus hudsonius)*

• State Endangered upland sandpiper (Bartramia longicauda)*
  
  * = recorded on Bell Bowl Prairie eBird page

These are some of the rarest of rare species in Illinois and are worth protecting. If state and federal agencies permit the destruction of this site, they would be signing off on the local extinction of some of the rarest plants in the state.

Lifting the soil, gravel, and plants up and moving them somewhere else to try to save the prairie is not acceptable. The coarse substrate and fragile soil profile, presence of state and federally Threatened and Endangered species, and many other issues discussed in depth by John White are reason enough to keep the prairie intact, in place.

State-recognized natural areas such as this can and should be protected with conservation easements and dedicated nature preserve status.