ILLINOIS—USDA Forest Service volunteers hosted a public fire information program on the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie as part of a local celebration, Red Carpet Corridor Festival. Mid-century collectors and Route 66 fans visited the prairie to meet Smokey Bear, get an up-close look at a painstakingly restored 1947 fire engine from Flossmoor, Illinois, and more!

Engine No. 4 was built in 1947. The nostalgic engine provides an example of the kinds of fire engines and other vehicles that traveled Route 66 in Illinois in its heyday in the 1950s. The engine was restored in Virginia in 2016. This was the first time the engine was part of a public program outside of the Homewood-Flossmoor area. It took 90 minutes to drive the engine, which can only go up to 45 miles per hour, from Flossmoor to the prairie. The engine includes distinct features on the outside of the vehicle, like a shiny schoolhouse-style bell and an antiquated hose and nozzle. Modern Forest Service and Elwood Fire Protection District fire engines also were on display for people to contrast and compare with the mid-century engine.

Visitors were treated to self-guided hiking tours or tours provided by Forest Service archaeologist Joe Wheeler, where they experienced the prairie as winter turns to spring: Carpets of lavender bluebells, white spring beauties, chocolate-colored prairie trilliums and other perennials, all signs of new life on the prairie.

Festival goers also learned about the importance of prescribed fire as a restorative tool at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, where prairie restoration is underway on land where the Joliet Arsenal was active. Prescribed fire is among the most effective and necessary pieces of the restoration process, providing benefits such as:

• Reducing hazardous fuels
• Minimizing the spread of plant and animal disease
• Removing invasive species that threaten species that are native to an ecosystem
• Providing forage for animals
• Improving habitat for threatened and endangered species; and 
• Recycling nutrients back to the soil and promoting the growth of forbs, tallgrasses, wildflowers and other plants

Since 1996, volunteers and staff members have been working with over 275 native Illinois prairie plants in an effort to restore and enhance natural areas. The restored areas are intended to provide necessary natural habitat for monarchs and other pollinators, grassland birds and native prairie species of all kinds. Approximately 3,000 acres of land are actively undergoing restoration or enhancement.

The Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie’s volunteer program is managed through a Forest Service partnership agreement with The Nature Conservancy.