(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Conservationists continue to pin their hopes on a bumblebee to save a rare type of prairie at the Rockford-Chicago Airport.
If it hadn’t been for the spotting of a rusty-patched bumblebee in August, construction crews this week may have started plowing through a rare dry gravel prairie as part of Rockford-Chicago Airport’s expansion plans.
“It’s as rare as a Mona Lisa,” says Kerry Leigh of the Natural Land Institute, which has cared for the prairie for decades.
“In the 21st century now, we can have both/and. We can have both the expansion and we can save the prairie.”
Leigh said there are only about 15 high-quality acres in the state of the rare type of prairie that’s at the Rockford Airport. Five of those acres are part of the airport and in danger of being bulldozed.
Judy Pollock of the Chicago Audubon Society said Illinois does not have mountains or oceans. It has prairies, which are increasingly dwindling.
“It’d be like wallpapering over a Michelangelo fresco or something,” she said.
Leigh adds there are enumerable environmental benefits of prairies: “Prairies store 40,000 tons of carbon per acre in their deep-rooted system. You would think the airport would want some carbon offsets.”
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is studying whether the rusty-patched bumblebee needs that prairie to survive. It’s expected to finish its work by sometime in June.
WBBM Newsradio has reached out to the Rockford Airport and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for comment.
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