HE WILD
CARLTON HOLLS
COURTESY FERMILAB
Illinois Prairie Path, Illinois
Clocking in at 61 miles, the Illinois
Prairie Path (IPP) was established in the
mid-1960s and quickly became one of
America’s first successful rail-trail conver-
sions. Along its route, people can view
deer, squirrels, rabbits, voles, groundhogs,
toads, birds and other woodland and
grassland creatures, many of which use
the trail and its surroundings as a shel-
tered refuge amidst the Chicago suburbs.
Since the trail’s creation 50 years ago, a
major focus of the Illinois Prairie Path
Corp. has been to preserve, restore and
reestablish the prairies located along the
trail. These have been critical in providing
needed natural habitats for many spe-
cies displaced by urban sprawl. The trail
also serves as a Monarch Waystation for
migrating butterflies.
The most popular wildlife attraction
is slightly off the path. The campus of
Fermilab, a physics laboratory adjacent
to the trail in Batavia, features a private
herd of bison that visitors can see follow-
ing a short detour off the IPP. The lab’s
first director established the initial herd
in 1969 as part of a program to help pre-
serve the prairie history of the state. Since
then, the lab has continued to maintain
a herd of 30 to 70 animals. The bison
habitat also attracts some beautiful birds
and has been at least the temporary home
of snow buntings, eastern bluebirds, great
horned owls, greater white-fronted geese
and Ross’s geese.
By Danielle Taylor
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