Federal lawsuit filed to halt airport expansion, save Bell Bowl Prairie
By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
Get our newsletter
ROCKFORD — The Natural Land Institute has filed a federal lawsuit that aims to temporarily halt airport expansion and save a rare ancient prairie from being bulldozed.
The lawsuit aims “to stop the bulldozers from destroying in an instant what took 8,000 years to create,” said Kerry Leigh, executive director of the Natural Land Institute.
The nonprofit environmental group says it has standing to file the lawsuit because of its years spent managing the Bell Bowl Prairie, a native prairie where endangered plants and birds have been found.
The suit was filed in the U.S. Northern District Court of Illinois in Rockford late Tuesday, and supporters of the Save Bell Bowl Prairie movement gathered outside the county courthouse Wednesday morning to speak to reporters about the suit and rally to stop the expansion.
Related: Advocates go old school with telegram campaign to save Bell Bowl Prairie
The institute wants a court injunction to put construction on hold until spring so that additional environmental assessment can be conducted. If, for example, it is determined that the federally endangered rusty patched bumblebee is nesting in the prairie “that should be enough to prevent the total destruction of the prairie for a parking lot and three holes in the ground for stormwater,” Leigh said. The bee had been found in the prairie in August.
The land is part of a Chicago Rockford International Airport expansion that includes a 100,000-square-foot air cargo facility. The project promises to create hundreds of jobs and help the airport continue its success as the fastest growing cargo airport in the world.
Airport officials said they have not been served with the complaint and have no comment at this time.
If granted the injunction, the Natural Land Institute hopes to work with the Greater Rockford Airport Authority, Federal Aviation Administration and the Illinois Department of Transportation to explore alternative, sustainable ways to design the expansion and discuss any additional funding needed “so that the prairie can remain for another 8,000 years,” Leigh said.
“We know there is an alternative. We know we can have the airport expansion for the economic vitality of our region and that we can also have the prairie for the health of our region,” she said. “We are offering to explore a different way of planning and designing.”
Related: ‘We want airport and prairie’: Group pitches plan to reconfigure airport expansion
Only 0.01% of all types of prairie remain in good condition in Illinois, and Bell Bowl comprises some of the last remaining acreage of dry gravel prairie. An estimated 18 acres of dry gravel prairie remain in good condition in the state, according to the lawsuit.
“Frankly, we can no longer continue to call ourselves the Prairie State if we don’t do everything we can to save Bell Bowl Prairie,” said Lindsay Keeney, conservation director for the Illinois Environmental Council. “That includes our elected officials and trusted decision-makers who hold the power to do right by all Illinoisians now and for generations to come.”
Judy Barnard, first vice president for the Natural Land Institute and a commissioner for the Forest Preserves of Winnebago County, pointed to the sustainable growth plans at O’Hare and Midway airports in Chicago as examples. O’Hare has more than 10 acres of green roofs, an onsite aviary that’s home to birds and bees and a grazing herd of goats and sheep meant to help reduce the airport’s environmental impact.
“Destroying Bell Bowl Prairie is a choice,” Barnard said. “All the facilities that are planned at the airport can be designed and built without impacting the prairie. We look to the airport board to provide the leadership with which we’ve entrusted them and to choose collaboration over conflict.”
The airport expansion has been on hold after the rusted patch bumble bee was found in August on the land, but construction is set to resume Monday without the courts intervening.
Airport officials have noted that they went through an environmental assessment in November 2019 and received a “Finding of No Significant Impact” from the Federal Aviation Administration.
Related: This building is for the birds. New library’s ‘glass box’ has bird-safety features
The airport is also working with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to relocate two state-endangered plant species — the prairie false dandelion and large-flowered penstemon — that were found on the site. That work is expected to happen later this week, but members of Save Bell Bowl Prairie say it isn’t a sufficient remedy.
Bell Bowl Prairie “is its own unique ecosystem found nowhere else. You can’t dig it up and plant it somewhere else. It just will not work. It’s either going to continue to improve at its current site or it will be gone forever when they try to move it,” said Steven Hall, co-chairperson of the Northwest River Valleys Sierra Group. “Surely it’s worth a moment to think about what we’re about to destroy and whether there’s better options.”
A hearing on the lawsuit has not yet been set.
This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on Twitter at @KevinMHaas.
