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We need nature
Together, we can protect the natural world.
Environmental stewards are vital to maintaining ecosystem health. Whether it’s a tallgrass prairie or a cypress swamp, an ecosystem will naturally shift and eventually degrade unless people apply their knowledge and good judgment to provide considered care to the land.
The first stewards of the area we now call Illinois were Native Americans. For thousands of years, indigenous people managed the land with fire; prescribing it to make space for their homes, improve navigability, and promote the edible forbs, fruits, and wild game they relied on for food. As colonists forced out native residents, this long era of stewardship ended. Across the Midwest, new settlers were driven by the belief that they were subduing “wasted” land. The diverse landscape of flowering prairies changed and grew dense with grasses, shrubs, and saplings before being turned under by the plow or grazed to the ground by livestock. Roads divided forests, and dams interrupted rivers and wetlands, disrupting migrations and water flow. Wildlife were hunted extensively. Some species were pushed out of the state entirely.
This development became the foundation for our society, but it also destroyed a system of complex and diverse ecosystems that supported the thriving civilization that came before it. Over time, we have realized the environmental impacts of these actions. Together, we’re learning and sharing ideas and resources about land stewardship to restore and rejuvenate disturbed landscapes for the benefit of people and wildlife alike.
Everything is interconnected, and anyone can be a steward of the environment. Stewardship focused on developing healthier environments will support healthier human and animal populations. This concept from the World Health Organization is called “One Health.” To achieve a healthy coexistence between humans, wildlife, and the environment, we encourage Illinois land stewards to move from conventional approaches and instead try out new and innovative ideas that are supported by rigorous science. Through the One Health lens, we can look to animals and ecosystems as sentinels to illuminate potential threats to human health, and we can adopt solutions that sustain these interconnected systems.