Prairie Ecosystems

Lessons of Sustainability from the past and for the future

Justin Borevitz&

Geoff Morrishttp://natural.uchicago.edu/prairieecosystems

http://prairieecosystems.pbwiki.com http://prairieecosystems.blogspot.com

Lesson Outline

• Prairie Natural History (text)– Since the Glaciers, moraines and sloughs– Regular disturbance (fire, grazing)– Biotrophic interactions/ Keystone species

• Succession (Henry Chandler Cowles of the University of Chicago 1899)

• Oak Savannah • Birds (Aaron Turkewitz)• Your presentations

Readings• Aldo Leopold• Wendell Berry (Unsettling of America)• Wes Jackson, Land Institute• Brad Tillman (Prairie Biofuel, Science and comments)• Paul Hawken Amory and Hunter Lovins

– Natural Capitalism (Ecological Business)• Rachael Carlson (Silent Spring)• James Loveland (Gia)• Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma: (audiobook) • Brue Babbitt’s Cities in the Wilderness• Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, a must if you live in chicago (audiobook)• Nature’s Metropolis• Last Child in the Woods.• Great Magazines. Chicago Wilderness Orion Magazine

Field Trips

• Morton Arboretum• Chicago Botanical Gardens• Fermi Labs prairie• Laurie Gardens Millennium Park• Indian Dunes

– Other sites?– A controlled burn..

• Chicago center for Green/Neighborhood Tech• Palos Preserve, Ford Center• City Hall rooftop garden

Assignments

• The Wiki, course and assignment levels• Quizzes • And a midterm• Photo Naturalist Guide• Endangered Species Report 4pg

• Why the decline, how listed, plan, and success? Buffalo

• Letter to Editor• Conservation plan

• Prairie/Savannah site, Home, community garden, farm, neighborhood, transportation, eg Prairie Crossings/ Dongtan

General Ideas

• Ecosystems Services • Water pollution, ½ nitrogen with your food?• Soil vs dirt

– (rhizosphere as underground rainforest)\– erosion, and downstream?

• Biodiversity, eco-tourism property value• Wendell Berry “when we came across the continent cutting forests and

plowing prairies we have never known what we were doing as we have never known what we were undoing”

• Ecofootprint, Carbon footprint,– C02 trading/offsets Chicago Climate Exchange $$/ton

• Dongtan– New Alchemy Institute ”Ark”, Angel’s Nest, Polyface farms, Zero

Energy Tower (Guanzho? china)