ROCKFORD, Ill. (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- An environmental group has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to prevent the destruction of five acres of a rare, 8,000- year-old prairie that's threatened by the expansion of the Rockford Airport.
The environmentalists are looking to save the rare Bell Bowl Prairie, which they argue, is home to rare species of plants and birds and the federally-endangered Rusty-Patched Bumblebee.
Carrie Leigh, Executive Director of the Natural Land Institute, stood outside the federal courthouse in Rockford, announcing the latest move concerning the Prairie.
“We are here with grief in our hearts to file a lawsuit,” she said, standing with representatives of other environmental organizations, “to stop the bulldozers from destroying in an instant what took 8,000 years to create, and for additional environmental assessment of this precious and unique prairie that provides life to threatened and endangered species.”
The bumblebee’s presence bought some time before the bulldozers come in,
but only until Nov. 1 when the bees are generally thought to no longer be foraging.
Leigh noted that the endangered bee could be burrowed in the ground now.
She also noted that only one one-hundredth of one percent of all prairie land remains in Illinois, "shamefully," she said, "still called the Prairie State."
The environmental organizations are looking for a solution that would save the prairie and allow for the airport project.
The airport authority has said all assessments have been done as required by law, but Leigh asserts that the assessments "were disturbingly flawed."
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