Prairie Village by Fairhaven
Whitewater, Wisconsin

http://www.fairhaven.org
 
By Noelle Hoeffner and Chris Kaplan. Photos by Tallgrass staff.

Prairie Village is a retirement community of duplex houses located north of the city of Whitewater, WI. The idea behind Prairie Village is to have a retirement community that surrounds residents with natural beauty including restored prairie, wetlands, ponds, and oak forest. In addition to the environmental benefits of these restored natural features, Prairie Village hopes to realize lower maintenance costs when compared to traditional developments.  

 

Prairie Village by Fairhaven

Tallgrass Restoration has had the pleasure of working with Prairie Village for almost five years.  During these years we have provided a number of different services in efforts to restore the natural areas.  In the summer of 2006, we began with preparing the natural areas for an installation of native prairie.  This included applying herbicide to eliminate weeds and fine grading to ensure adequate seed- to-soil contact.  Tallgrass Restoration staff also treated the majestic oak trees along White Water Creek with a root growth hormone prior to the site excavation and grading work.  This was done to reduce the stress of the grading impacts on the root systems of the trees and ensure that they would be given the best chance to survive this disturbance. In the fall of 2007, Tallgrass Restoration installed native seed using a combination of drill seeding and hand broadcasting.  The seed mixes were very diverse containing over 60 native species of native grasses, forbs, and sedges which varied depending on ranging levels of soil moisture present in the site.  During the growing seasons of 2008 through 2009, Tallgrass Restoration maintained the prairie areas by ongoing stewardship visits. These visits included selective mowing of weeds, hand-weeding, spot-mowing, and selective herbicide applications to aggressive weeds.  While a new planting is starting to establish in the first couple of years, stewardship is critical. This is when the invasive species pose the most threat to delicate first and second year native plants. Once the plants are established the restored areas will maintain themselves by outcompeting weeds naturally. An occasional controlled burn or spot treatment of problematic weeds is all the prairie needs to sustain itself.

 

In conjunction with the "sustainable" prairie plantings, Prairie Village also implemented stormwater retention ponds to capture and hold water on-site as opposed to letting the water race off into Whitewater Creek.  Since the implementation, water from major rain events is stored and acts as a refuge for area wildlife.  The shorelines of these retention ponds were seeded into native wet prairie to prevent erosion and reduce the expense of mowing. "Native plantings add beauty to the site and help control weeds that could take over. The ponds and native plantings have encouraged waterfowl, birds and deer to use our property. We just noticed a fox this last week playing next to one of the ponds," said Kathy Bolchen, Marketing Director at Prairie Village.

 

 

Prairie Village shoreline restoration

Chris Kaplan, project manager and Carrie Van Lanen, project foreman, led a tour of the site for the staff and residents of Prairie Village in the summer of 2009.  This was a great opportunity to explain the project, identify native species, and answer questions.  The staff and residents really enjoyed the tour, "He took time to explain the design and benefits of the plantings and ponds. Then he helped them identify the different species of plants that were growing on the prairie and explained the benefits of each plant," said Kathy Bolchen.  Chris also has plans to participate in the Whitewater Women's Federation, City Wide Garden Walk on July 11th.   Prairie Village is one of the six area gardens on the tour.

 

Prairie Village has recently been selected by the EPA and Chicago Wilderness for a 2009 Conservation and Native Landscaping Award.  The EPA and Chicago Wilderness support the use of native landscaping and conservation-style development because these practices create habitat for a variety of species and produce important environmental benefits. The award's intent is to raise awareness about native landscaping and conservation development, helping encourage others to adopt these sustainable practices.  Prairie Village was chosen for this award because of exemplary use of native landscaping, ecosystem restoration and protection, and conservation design.  The award was presented to representatives from Prairie Village and Tallgrass Restoration on Thursday, December 10th at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

 

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Wetland Banking

Invasive weeds now present will be replaced/managed by native plants.

The concept behind the ecosystem service markets is fairly straightforward.  Governmental bodies set environmental regulations to protect and conserve natural resources, such as wetlands, water quality, biodiversity, and air quality. Industries, municipalities, businesses, developers, and individuals whose business requires them to negatively impact the land or water must either meet these regulatory standards or "compensate" for the impacts they cannot avoid. They are able to compensate for these impacts by purchasing a "credit" to offset their negative impact on the environment.  Credit creation allows businesses to expand while meeting regulatory requirements more efficiently. Ecosystem credits are created when a producer restores or protects our environment in ways that provide the environmental services lost by the negative impact.  Some types of ecosystem credits are wetland bank credits, water quality credits, biodiversity credits and habitat credits.

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Tim Moritz: Tallgrass Project Manager

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A School - Community Partnership
By Noelle Hoeffner. Photos by Tallgrass staff. 

 

 

Tallgrass Restoration's Matt Hokanson explaining the day's restoration activities to the Elgin High School students

 

 

EHS student teacher, Brigid and Deb

 

This woodland is a rare and unique ecosystem in Elgin with a Spring-fed Fen; in the early spring months, skunk cabbage is the first to bloom all throughout the site.  During the summer columbine, shooting star, and Dutchman's breeches are found blooming along the Poplar Creek.

 

 

EHS students clearing invasives

 

If you are interested in learning more about what these Elgin High School teachers do every day in their classrooms, you can contact them at Elgin High School or via email at:

 

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected] 

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The Modern Environmental Movement of the 1970s led to the first Earth Day on April 22nd.    The original Earth Day movement stems primarily from society's reaction to the adverse effects of industrial growth. Starting in 1962, Gaylord Nelson, Founder and Wisconsin Senator, slowly helped Earth Day evolve for about seven years prior to the actual Earth Day. His persuasions throughout the years consisted of going on a national conservation tour. This was a five-day, eleven-state tour that took place in 1963. He was concerned to find that environmental issues were not on everyone's agenda. After surveying an oil spill in Santa Barbara, the idea occurred to him to organize a grassroots protest, which later became Earth Day. Internationally, Earth Day is celebrated on March 20th- 21st because of the Vernal Equinox, when the sun crosses the equator. This marks the first day of spring for the northern hemisphere, and the first day of autumn south of the equator. During this time, night and day is the same length everywhere on earth. The UN celebrates by ringing the UN Peace Bell at the very moment of the Equinox. Earth Day turned out to be an extraordinarily successful event. It was celebrated in many countries. Earth Day changed the face of environmental issues and brought 20 million Americans together to demonstrate their concern for the environment. The Earth Day movement also brought way to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") by President Nixon and the adoption of major environmental laws such as the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Safe Drinking Water Acts. In 1995, Gaylord Nelson received the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Clinton for his role in founding Earth Day, and raising concern for environmental issues. Over the years, participation of Earth Day has dropped significantly. Recognize Earth Day and help bring back the importance of it - volunteer with your local Forest Preserve District or non-profit organization during their efforts to restore the environment. Also on Earth Day, if you usually drive to work, consider taking the train or bus. If you do not recycle, recycle for the day, and pick up trash on your lunch time walk or on the way into the office. This year is Earth Day's 40th Anniversary - celebrate the Earth! 

Wisconsin

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