Piet e UO MUe be tNe BtU sie hela N 17 
PANIC STRIKES—news comes that the prairie to be saved has been 
“rented” at high pay for an archery range and baseball practice area, 
rented to make money—renters threatening to bulldoze prairie of all 
natural beauty, if need be, to protect their financial interests. 
Complaints: the prairie is too expensive to save, too small, in wrong 
area. Disagreements and resignations of some key leaders. 
THE PATTERN of obstacles and impending defeat is all too familiar, 
but our conservation winner wouldn’t give up. And now for the rare 
flashes of hope to preserve the prairie: 
Prairie neighbors who WOULD sign petitions—A successful public 
meeting; a temporary committee formed to lay firmer plans—Public pre- 
sentation of the first financial contributions to save the prairie from a 
friend—$75 more from the Izaak Walton League of the area. 
An accountant and neighbor acting as Treasurer of the new committee 
—President of the Home Owners Association acting as Secretary—The 
local Garden Club sends a representative—an offer to help—tlst pictures, 
dried plant forms and snow scenes, taken by a talented woman doctor 
living near the prairie. 
An attorney interested in conservation gives long hours of free time to 
track down property records on prairie ownership—lIncorporation of the 
“Prairie Preservation Project” with free legal aid—Courageous decision 
to raise an impossible $100,000 to get a matching Federal grant of $100,000. 
Winning free help from a reputable fund raiser who put in long, hard hours. 
Moral support from the County Forest Preserve District, the Morton 
Arboretum, the Nature Conservancy, the state Nature Preserves Com- 
mission; and ultimately, after a great struggle, winning the Open Lands 
Board to remove roadblocks to the land acquisition; softening up the 
local Park Board; and winning the interest of the state University for an 
OUTDOOR LABORATORY! 
Success is beginning to build up. Increasing interest in the prairie 
eocmes from photographers, scientists, students, and the citizens. A full 
page of professional pictures appears in the newspaper, another half page 
in a big metropolitan paper. 
The World Flower and Garden Show invites the Prairie Preservation 
Project to have one of its booths. A professional photographer takes fifty 
fine pictures. Confidence of citizens is growing. Contributions of citizens 
is growing. Contributions are coming in. Open Lands Board solidifies 
University interest in buying prairie for an outdoor laboratory. 
The climax is approaching: The rich owner won’t give the land, even 
for tax advantages, but will sell for a trifling $200,000. Two hundred thou- 
sand dollars for five and one-half acres of virgin prairie for aesthetic, 
scientific, historic, and educational use, preserving 125 species of com- 
paratively rare prairie plants, including legumes, lillies, gentians and orchids. 
This whole effort was born when Dr. Hugh Iltis of the University of 
Wisconsin, at a Natural Resources Council Meeting in Illinois, cried ‘out 
in defense of America’s vanishing outdoor beauty, “Must EVERY prairie 
be gutted for a gravel pit?” Catching fire in that audience was our award 
winner—she might have been your neighbor—the courageous, beautiful 
Mrs. Franklin Popelka of Glenview, housewife and mother of two, who 
wins our annual conservation award for her magnificent efforts to save 
Peacock Prairie. 
The success pattern is simple: Keep trying. Never give up. 
179 Villa Road, Addison 
