Dr. Evelyn Pease Tyner, Dr. Albert Rouffa, Bernice Popelka
Dr. Tyner and Ms. Popelka were very influential in saving what was then known as Peacock Prairie. Dr. Rouffa lead the UIC part of the effort.
(photographer unknown)
Financial Support
The Bernice Popelka Fund, established at the University of Illinois Foundation, accepts donations to support research and education at the James Woodworth Prairie.
Gifts support Prairie initiatives, and help enhance the Prairie as a research, education and community resource. If you are interested in making a gift to the Prairie, please contact UIC’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Office of Advancement at 312-413-1898.
There are still many pieces of concrete and a post from a sign that need to be removed from JWP.
Individuals who know insects have many species to find and identify.
Photo by Frank Mayfield
Volunteering
If you are interested in volunteering at the Prairie, please do so! You may help the prairie with:
Maintenance of native species, and the removal of nonnative species
Animal identification and inventory
General aesthetic maintenance with planting, weeding, etc.
Burning of the prairie
Contact the Director.
Cleaning up debris in 1966.
You would be surprised by the amount of debris that continues to blow into the prairie.
Photo by Evelyn Pease Tyner
Complicated boundary of a fall burn
Volunteering - Burns
Prairies historically burned and we try to burn part of the prairie every year. Ideally, we try to burn a third in the fall and a third in the spring. We change the boundaries of the burns so that at any time there is a mosaic of places burned many times as well as few times and all statuses inbetween.The burning is done by volunteers. We are proud of our history of safety and success with burning the prairie.
The beginning of a burn.
Black swallowtail, taken by Mary Palmer, Interpreter
Employment
Interpreters are employed to open and close the facility, guide visitors around the prairie and talk about the inside exhibits when JWP is open to public. Employees also do housekeeping and vegetation management. Typically, we have many employees, each with a particular day of the week as their 5 hour shift. We usually add one or two new persons each year.
The Interpretation Center, from the parking area. Immediately around the outside is a garden within a concrete wall.
Neighbors
Neighbors of the Prairie have special opportunities to help, because what goes on immediately adjacent to the Prairie has an impact on it. Neighbors that remove shrubs from the border fence will help the Prairie. We thank those neighbors who have done so.
photographer unknown
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photo by Dr. Evelyn Pease Tyner