Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge NRDAR Prairie Restoration

Background information. In the late 1800s through the early 1900s, nearly all of the area that is now the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge (Crab Orchard NWR) was either logged for timber or cleared and converted to other uses, particularly agriculture. By the 1930s, soils in the area were depleted and severely eroded. Additional clearing and development ensued with the establishment of the Illinois Ordnance Plant during World War II. In 2014, as part of the effort to restore Crab Orchard NWR lands to benefit wildlife, the refuge undertook the Hampton native prairie restoration project to convert a 62-acre nonnative cool-season hay field into a native warm-season grassland. The primary benefit of this restoration is higher quality [...]