History of Nachusa Grasslands
2016
Nachusa Grasslands turned 30 years old in 2016! What started as a bold vision has become real. One day, sometime in the decade of the 1970s, a whistling call of the upland sandpiper made prairie enthusiasts Dot and Doug Wade pull their car over to have a look in those pastures we now call Nachusa Grasslands. They saw heavily grazed pasture, but the plants being grazed were prairie. As they got to know the landscape, they found seeps, springs, sedge meadows, a fen, and oak savannas. The Wades eventually met up with Tim Keller of Sterling, and, together, they pitched the wonders of what is now Nachusa Grasslands. During the same decade, the ecologists of the Illinois Natural Area Inventory carefully described and mapped several of those same remnants.
The Conservancy's 1985 Board of Trustees, chaired by Charlie Haffner, wanted to attempt something big, somewhere. In 1985, Conservancy staff Steve Packard and Paul Dye attended a large meeting of Illinois conservationists. The question of the day was: Should conservation put some of its resources into larger landscapes that were grade C in quality, but had areas big enough for animals to prosper and ecological processes to function? Or should we work only on the smaller high quality sites? There was heated debate, since there were no large-scale restorations to suggest a bigger site could be restored. One area circled on the map that day that the participants could agree on for a potential project, was right here at Nachusa. Why here? Because there remained extensive prairies, woodlands and wetlands. The Conservancy staff returned back to their office with a mission. |
 30th Anniversary Homecoming Speakers – Mike Saxton, Bill Kleiman, Ralph Burnett, Stephen Packard, Mary Vieregg, and Heather Marshall
In 1985, 850 acres, broken up into small tracts in the heart of what is now Nachusa Grasslands, were up for sale with roads named after prairie plants. The Illinois Department of Conservation was interested in the mapped sites of the Natural Areas Inventory. The legendary George Fell of the Natural Land Institute was helpful in a number of ways to make the deals move forward. On August 26, 1986, the Conservancy purchased 130 acres.
An auction was scheduled for October 2, 1986. Conservancy staff was hustling to line up the organization to make the auction. Money was needed. George Fell and John Santucci, a new Conservancy trustee, wrote checks to secure a place at the auction. The bidding started and the Conservancy's Ralph Burnett remembers buying all the tracts that were available, 267 acres. We closed on those auction tracts on December 17. As 1986 ended, the Conservancy owned 397 acres, and Nachusa Grasslands was started. Thirty-three years later, the project is still thriving, growing, and learning. Volunteers still contribute the biggest part of work done on the 3,800-acre preserve. Donors continue to empower us to protect and restore land. The people involved with this project over the years are proud of what they started. Those working here today show that same pride and love of this landscape. By Bill Kleiman
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Nachusa's Headquarters Barn
In 1999, our headquarters barn was restored from an 1868 timber framed barn that was moved to Nachusa from Ashton, Illinois. The barn has three levels – a seed processing and storage area, lunch/meeting room, office, loft, garage, and workshop. We have four permanent staff members, a hired summer crew, and a dedicated group of volunteers who use the barn facilities. Volunteer workdays gather here on Saturday mornings, and meals and special events take place year-round.
UPDATED 05/2025