Why save natural areas? In response to Clark W. Bullard`s Jan. 4 guest column about the ”last 2 percent of Illinois,” my focus is on the last one- tenth of 1 percent of Illinois: the tallgrass prairie.
It frightens me to think how few people will ever see miles of native grasses and flowers, stretching to a treeless horizon, alive with hundreds of species of butterflies and animals.
I am saddened to know so few humans will ever delight in the smells of the native plants: the minty scent of wild bergamot, the spiciness of yellow cone-flower seeds, the popcorn aroma of dropseeds in full bloom.
How many will delight at the box turtle under spiderwort, or will wonder at the golden garden spider in its platter-sized web, waiting for its next meal? How many will fuss at sand burrs in shoelaces and socks?
Can these be learned from a TV series? In four years of college? Or does it take years of field trips out to the last of the last great places-outside Illinois` borders?
If the adults and teachers of today don`t know of these scenes, smells and joys, how can the children learn? Could there be a bigger meaning to extinction, beyond the loss of individual species? Could we lose our memory of the way Illinois had been, an extinction of history of place?
