Author and Midewin volunteer Arthur Pearson and Midewin Archaeologist, Tribal Liaison and Heritage Program Manager Joe Wheeler will share the history of Midewin and lead a conversation about prairie connections in the built and natural environments.

United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service International Programs & USDA Forest Service—Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie is the first of its kind in the country. Midewin represents a major effort to restore 20,000 acres of farm and industrial land to a unique American landscape and the complex ecology of the prairie. It is the largest open space in the Chicago metropolitan area and northeastern Illinois and the largest tallgrass prairie restoration effort east of the Mississippi River.

Arthur Melville Pearson is the former Director, Chicago Program for the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, where he guided investments in land conservation, the arts and collections. He is the author of Force of Nature (University of Wisconsin Press, 2017) an award-winning biography of George Fell, founder of The Nature Conservancy and the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission. A long-time volunteer at Midewin, Arthur is currently writing a book-length history of Midewin, entitled, A Midewin Almanac.

Joseph Wheeler is the Prairie Archaeologist, Heritage Program Manager and Tribal Liaison at the USDA Forest Service - Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. Before coming to Midewin in 2013 he was a field archaeologist based out of the Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain region, working throughout the West and Southwest United States. He attended graduate school in Anthropology, specializing in Archaeology, at the University of Wyoming and holds a BA from Loyola University of Chicago.

Image: Grant Creek at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. Photo: Bill Glass