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Showing posts from July, 2016

Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie Bison Grand Marshals at Wilmington Catfish Days Parade

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The City of Wilmington, Illinois honored the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie bison herd by naming the bison Grand Marshals of the 2016 Wilmington Catfish Days Parade. Bison were reintroduced to Midewin in October 2015 as part of an experiment to observe how bison grazing habits impact prairie restoration. Wilmington purchased a bison sculpture by the late, local artist Jack Barker in anticipation of the reintroduction and subsequent increased eco-tourism traffic heading to Midewin and Wilmington. The sculpture was pulled in the parade and was joined by Smokey the Bear and a large photo of a bison and a baby bison.  Beautiful native plants like the compass plant framed by bison photo, giving parade spectators a glimpse of what years of work to restore the tallgrass prairie in Illinois has yielded:

Governor Rauner Announces Agreement to Build Houbolt Road Bridge

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Speaking in Joliet, Governor Bruce Rauner announced the State of Illinois and local government will work with CenterPoint Properties to build a new Houbolt Bridge over the Des Plaines River.  The bridge will link Interstate 80 in Joliet with the intermodal facilities to the south of the River.  Check out the fill press release and details of the plan here .  For a bit of background on the Houbolt Road Bridge idea, this presentation was made at the Elwood International Port Authority meeting: