Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the dominant vegetation type. Temperate grassland regions include the Pampas of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, and the steppe of Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan. Lands typically referred to as "prairie" tend to be in North America. The term encompasses the area referred to as the Interior Lowlands of Canada, the United States, and Mexico, which includes all of the Great Plains as well as the wetter, hillier land to the east.
Urbana is a city in and the county seat of Champaign County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 census, Urbana had a population of 38,336. As of the 2010 United States Census, Urbana is the 38th-most populous municipality in Illinois. It is included in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area.
Bolingbrook is a village in Will and DuPage counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is a southwest suburb of Chicago on I-55 and Historic Route 66. The village was a new town built on the Gateway Wetlands west of the Des Plaines River in the 1960s. Bolingbrook experienced rapid growth in the 1980s and 1990s, eventually becoming the county's second largest town after Joliet. Per the 2020 census, the population was 73,922. As of 2010, it is the 17th largest incorporated place in Illinois and the state's 2nd largest village.
Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of McLean County, Illinois, United States. It is adjacent to the town of Normal, and is the more populous of the two principal municipalities of the Bloomington–Normal metropolitan area. Bloomington is 135 miles (217 km) southwest of Chicago and 162 miles (261 km) northeast of St. Louis. The 2020 census showed the city had a population of 78,680, making it the 13th-most populated city in Illinois and the fifth-most populous outside the Chicago Metropolitan Area. Combined with Normal, the twin cities have a population of roughly 130,000. The Bloomington area is home to Illinois Wesleyan University and Illinois State University. It also serves as the headquarters for State Farm Insurance and Country Financial.
The greater prairie chicken or pinnated grouse, sometimes called a boomer, is a large bird in the grouse family. This North American species was once abundant, but has become extremely rare and extirpated over much of its range due to habitat loss. Conservation measures are underway to ensure the sustainability of existing small populations. One of the most famous aspects of these creatures is the mating ritual called booming.
The tallgrass prairie is an ecosystem native to central North America. Historically, natural and anthropogenic fire, as well as grazing by large mammals provided periodic disturbances to these ecosystems, limiting the encroachment of trees, recycling soil nutrients, and facilitating seed dispersal and germination. Prior to widespread use of the steel plow, which enabled large scale conversion to agricultural land use, tallgrass prairies extended throughout the American Midwest and smaller portions of southern central Canada, from the transitional ecotones out of eastern North American forests, west to a climatic threshold based on precipitation and soils, to the southern reaches of the Flint Hills in Oklahoma, to a transition into forest in Manitoba.
Prairie Fire may refer to:
WCIA is a television station licensed to Champaign, Illinois, United States, serving as the CBS affiliate for the Central Illinois region. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Springfield-licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate WCIX. Both stations share studios on South Neil Street/US 45 in downtown Champaign and also operate a sales office and news bureau on East Edwards Street near the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield. WCIA's transmitter is located west of Seymour, Illinois.
Illinois Public Media, previously "WILL AM-FM-TV", is a not-for-profit organization located within the College of Media at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, which is responsible for the university's public media service activities. It manages three university educational broadcasting stations licensed to Urbana, Illinois, United States: NPR member stations WILL and WILL-FM, and PBS member station WILL-TV. Illinois Public Media provides locally produced programs to supplement the network programs carried by its stations. In addition, it manages the Illinois Radio Reader Service, a streaming audio service for the reading impaired.
WILL-TV is a PBS member television station licensed to Urbana, Illinois, United States, serving the Central Illinois region. Owned by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as part of Illinois Public Media, it is sister to NPR member stations WILL and WILL-FM (90.9). The three stations share studios at Campbell Hall for Public Telecommunication on the university's campus; WILL-TV's transmitter is located on East 1700th Road North, five miles (8 km) west of Monticello.
Sand Ridge State Forest is a conservation area located in the U.S. state of Illinois. Containing 7,200 acres (2,900 ha), it is the largest state forest in Illinois. It is located in northern Mason County. The nearest town is Manito, Illinois, and the nearest numbered highway is U.S. Highway 136. It is located on a low bluff, or "sand ridge", overlooking the Illinois River, hence the name. The sand ridge is believed to be an artifact of the post-glacial Kankakee Torrent.
Funks Grove is a historic unincorporated community on U.S. Route 66 in McLean County, Illinois, United States, southwest of Bloomington. The grove for which the settlement is named, Funk's Grove, is a National Natural Landmark.
Prairielands Council is a local council of the Boy Scouts of America formed in 1991 by the merger of Arrowhead and Piankeshaw Councils. The council serves Scouts in east central Illinois and western Indiana. The headquarters is located in Champaign, Illinois; an auxiliary office is located in Danville, Illinois.
Ramsey Lake State Recreation Area is a 1,980-acre (800 ha) state park located in Fayette County, Illinois, United States. The nearest town is Ramsey, Illinois, and the park is adjacent to U.S. Highway 51. The park is managed by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR).
Coffeen Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area is an Illinois state park on 297 acres (120 ha) in Montgomery County, Illinois, United States just south of Coffeen.
Newton Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area is an Illinois state park on 1,775 acres (718 ha) in Jasper County, Illinois, United States. The park's grasslands are home to the largest of the three remaining greater prairie chicken flocks in Illinois.
Fults Hill Prairie State Natural Area, also known as the Fults Hill Prairie Nature Preserve, is an Illinois Nature Preserve on 997 acres (403 ha) in Monroe County, Illinois, United States. A key feature of the preserve is a 532-acre (215 ha) hill prairie located on the east bluff of the Mississippi River overlooking the American Bottom near Fults, Illinois. The Fults Hill Prairie has been listed as a National Natural Landmark.
Prairie View is an unincorporated community located in northeastern Illinois, in southern Lake County. It is a part of Vernon Township. Prairie View has not been annexed entirely by either Lincolnshire or Buffalo Grove, although tiny portions of it have been.
The central forest–grasslands transition is a prairie ecoregion of the central United States, an ecotone between eastern forests and the North American Great Plains. It is a classification defined by the World Wildlife Fund.
Paul Lusk is an American men's basketball coach and former point guard, who is a current assistant men's basketball coach for the Purdue Boilermakers. He played college basketball at Iowa from 1991 to 1993 before transferring to Southern Illinois where he played from 1993 to 1995 for head coach Rich Herrin. He then served as the head coach of the Missouri State Bears (2011–2018).
