{"id":1062,"date":"2026-02-26T20:19:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T20:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/rhetoric\/?p=1062"},"modified":"2026-02-27T19:49:38","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T19:49:38","slug":"save-the-prairie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/rhetoric\/save-the-prairie\/","title":{"rendered":"Save the Prairie!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Illinois, the &#8220;Prairie State&#8221;, was once covered by endless fields of native tallgrass prairie. Now, it seems all you see is miles upon miles of cornfields. According to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, over 99.9% of native Illinois prairie has been cleared. So how can we help?<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div data-wp-interactive=\"core\/file\" class=\"wp-block-file\"><object data-wp-bind--hidden=\"!state.hasPdfPreview\" hidden class=\"wp-block-file__embed\" data=\"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/rhetoric\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/142\/2026\/02\/CombinedPDF_ReadabilityRedo.pdf\" type=\"application\/pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px\" aria-label=\"Embed of CombinedPDF_ReadabilityRedo.\"><\/object><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-4936d1d8-d9c6-448b-9023-512115c37ff9\" href=\"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/rhetoric\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/142\/2026\/02\/CombinedPDF_ReadabilityRedo.pdf\">CombinedPDF_ReadabilityRedo<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/rhetoric\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/142\/2026\/02\/CombinedPDF_ReadabilityRedo.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-4936d1d8-d9c6-448b-9023-512115c37ff9\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>I study Geography and GIS and am very passionate about conservation. I had the incredible privilege of walking the Poag Sand Prairie in Edwardsville with Dr. Richard Essner this previous fall, and it showed me how important, fragile, and beautiful our now rare prairie ecosystems are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This pamphlet is intended to be distributed across highway rest stops, local community spaces, and among friends and families. It comes with a small packet of native Illinois wildflower seeds to encourage Illinoisans to do what they can to bring native species back to our state. While it&#8217;s impossible for us to bring it back on our own, spreading awareness (and seeds) is a great first step.<br><br>The seed packet includes 16 native perennial wildflowers from the Paper Street Seed Company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Gypsophila elegans (Annual Baby&#8217;s Breath)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Lavatera trimestris (Tree Mallow)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Linum grandiflorum rubrum (Scarlet Flax)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Lupinus perennis (Perennial Lupine)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Mirabilis jalapa (Four O&#8217;Clocks)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Monarda citriodora (Lemon Mint)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Rudbeckia amplexicaulis (Clasping Cornflower)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Rudbeckia hirta (Black-Eyed Susan)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Salvia coccinea (Scarlet Sage)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Symphyotrichum novae-angliae (New England Aster)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Coreopsis lanceolata (Lance-Leaved Coreopsis)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Coreopsis tinctoria (Plains Coreopsis)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Cosmos sulphureus (Sulphus Cosmos)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Echinacea purpurea (Purple Coneflower)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Gaillardia pulchella (Indian Blanket)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Gaura lindheimeri (Gaura)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The way it&#8217;s printed is intended to show the 1820 map on the first page, which opens to the 2000 land cover map on the inside to show the sheer destruction of the ecosystem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The data for the 1820 land cover comes from Anderson (1970) via the University of Illinois and Illinois Natural History Society, and the 2000 land cover comes from the Illinois Natural History Society. It is projected at 1:4,419,252 scale wherein 1 inch is about 70 miles using NAD 1983 and the Illinois State Plane West FIPS 1202 (US Feet) projection. Boundary data comes from USGS, elevation data (for hillshade) from the Illinois Height Modernization Project via University of Illinois, hydrographic data from NOAA, and the National Geographic basemap from ESRI. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Credits to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and University of Illinois for information regarding prairies and their conservation, as well as my coworkers and friends for cartographic advice. Featured photo is of the Poag Sand Prairie in Edwardsville, IL, maintained by the HeartLands Conservancy from a visit in November 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Illinois, the &#8220;Prairie State&#8221;, was once covered by endless fields of native tallgrass prairie. Now, it seems all you see is miles upon miles of cornfields. According to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, over 99.9% of native Illinois prairie has been cleared. So how can we help? I study Geography and GIS and am very passionate about conservation. I had the incredible privilege of walking the Poag Sand Prairie in Edwardsville with Dr. Richard Essner this previous fall, and it showed me how important, fragile, and beautiful our now rare prairie ecosystems are. This pamphlet is intended to be distributed across highway rest stops, local community spaces, and among friends and families. It comes with a small packet of native Illinois wildflower seeds to encourage Illinoisans to do what they can to bring native species back to our state. While it&#8217;s impossible for us to bring it back on our own, spreading awareness (and seeds) is a great first step. The seed packet includes 16 native perennial wildflowers from the Paper Street Seed Company. The way it&#8217;s printed is intended to show the 1820 map on the first page, which opens to the 2000 land cover map on the inside to show the sheer destruction of the ecosystem. The data for the 1820 land cover comes from Anderson (1970) via the University of Illinois and Illinois Natural History Society, and the 2000 land cover comes from the Illinois Natural History Society. It is projected at 1:4,419,252 scale wherein 1 inch is about 70 miles using NAD 1983 and the Illinois State Plane West FIPS 1202 (US Feet) projection. Boundary data comes from USGS, elevation data (for hillshade) from the Illinois Height Modernization Project via University of Illinois, hydrographic data from NOAA, and the National Geographic basemap from ESRI. Credits to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and University of Illinois for information regarding prairies and their conservation, as well as my coworkers and friends for cartographic advice. Featured photo is of the Poag Sand Prairie in Edwardsville, IL, maintained by the HeartLands Conservancy from a visit in November 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":857,"featured_media":1068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sb_is_suggestion_mode":false,"_sb_show_suggestion_boards":false,"_sb_show_comment_boards":false,"_sb_suggestion_history":"","_sb_update_block_changes":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/rhetoric\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/142\/2026\/02\/Image-10-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/rhetoric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/rhetoric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/rhetoric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/rhetoric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/857"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/rhetoric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1062"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/rhetoric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1062\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1115,"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/rhetoric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1062\/revisions\/1115"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/rhetoric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/rhetoric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/rhetoric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/rhetoric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}