For conservation’s sake, transfer Joliet Training Area to Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie

Recently, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP28, Assistant Secretary for the Interior Shannon Estenoz said, “Investing in nature is investing in ourselves. By employing nature-based solutions, land managers and decision-makers can restore and sustain healthy ecosystems that in turn support healthy communities and economies.”

Less than an hour south of Chicago lies our region’s most substantial investment opportunity: the Joliet Training Area, a 3,000-acre landscape operated by the U.S. military directly north of the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. With encroaching development pressure, diminishing water supply, and increasing truck traffic, the future of this area is at a crossroads.

It’s time for Congress to embrace a vision for healthy ecosystems, communities, and economies and steward the transfer of the Training Area to the U.S. Forest Service at Midewin.

As the Sun-Times recently reported, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation awarded a historic $1.5 million to restore and expand over 1,300 acres of grassland and wetland habitat at Midewin, as part of the America the Beautiful Challenge grant. This funding is a national recognition of Midewin in achieving our country’s America the Beautiful Initiative, an effort to conserve and restore 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030.

With less than six years left, we need bold actions. What better way to build on this historic restoration than with this transfer, protecting our region’s largest landscape for future generations?

Home to endangered species

The word “Midewin” is rooted in healing and used by the tribal nations of the Great Lakes Region: the Ojibwa, Chippewa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi. When Midewin was established in 1996, it foreshadowed the immense healing to come. As one of the largest prairie restorations east of the Mississippi River, conservation partners and the Forest Service are proud to have restored several thousand acres, with more underway.

Preston Keres, USDA Forest Service/Provided

In turn, wildlife and people have responded. Today, Midewin is home to many threatened and endangered species, especially grassland birds, some of the most endangered in the world. Thousands of people visit Midewin every year to experience its history and nature. The Joliet Training Area is no less ecologically or recreationally significant. With over 3,000 acres of woodland, the state’s longest stretch of seeps, globally rare dolomite prairie, and Jackson Creek — the healthiest stream in Illinois, named by RiverWatch — the JTA presents a critical opportunity to protect open space for wildlife and people.

Today, the threat of unsustainable development is great. Flanked by 11,600 acres of intermodal facilities, Midewin and the JTA are under increasing development pressure. Will County contains the largest inland port in the U.S., and it’s growing. Residents in the surrounding Manhattan and Elwood communities face an eroding quality of life due to air pollution and heavy truck traffic. Yet they deserve an economic future built on all that Will County has to offer, including its natural and agricultural lands. The economic opportunity is there: according to a study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, birders in the U.S. alone make up a $20 billion industry and number in the tens of millions. Our nation’s first and only tallgrass prairie can be a beacon for responsible development and intentional reuse.

An investment in Midewin is an investment in a climate-resilient future for our region. Joliet and the surrounding communities are experiencing a rapidly declining aquifer that threatens the water supply, in no small part due to the water demands of global logistics hubs. Joliet recently announced a 100-year agreement to purchase Lake Michigan water starting in 2030, but this is only a stop-gap measure. Paving over the Training Area would exacerbate the issue. Our region’s leaders must proactively protect the lands’ ability to store and clean our water.

The Joliet Arsenal Citizens Planning Committee 28 years ago advocated for the creation of Midewin. Illinois’ congressional delegation responded, with every representative supportive of a sustainable approach. Today, as part of the Midewin Stakeholders, including The Nature Conservancy Illinois, the Environmental Law & Policy Center, and others, we are unified in a similar cause. With the addition of JTA, Midewin will continue to improve quality of life for residents. It will provide green jobs, increase tourism and recreation, and improve the local economy. The more people who get to experience an expanded Midewin and contribute to its place-making, the deeper this place will be ingrained into our collective ethos.

Today, we have bold climate goals we must meet in a mere six years, and they demand the same bold resolve. On the heels of COP28, Illinois’ delegation should finish what the 1995 Illinois Land Conservation Act stipulated, by transferring JTA to the U.S. Forest Service at Midewin.

Michael Davidson is president and CEO of Openlands, Paul Botts is president and executive director of the Wetlands Initiative, and Jack Darin is chapter director of Sierra Club-Illinois.

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