Very little virgin prairie of any form exists in North America anymore, and even recovering stretches are mostly found in remnants belonging to government lands. This is a shame, because restoring prairie is a wonderful way to help bring depleted soil back from the brink, and it tends to look far better than whatever sort of a mess tends to get poorly managed in fallow fields. Among the initiatives taken to restore our grassy heritage are measures in place to let highway medians return to tallgrass and wildflowers.
This is one such strip in Illinois, about thirty miles north of Springfield on I-55. Much of I-55 in Illinois has medians and margins that consist of restored tallgrass prairie, and in some cases neighboring property owners have permitted the restoration to spread into their land. In other places, such as this one, the tallgrass intermingles with the oak-hickory forests just as it would have in pre-development times, engaged in a never ending struggle for dominance between grass and tree.
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