What is Prairie restoration?
[[File:American Prairie Reserve Buffalo.JPG|thumb|American Prairie Reserve Buffalo]] '''Prairie restoration''' is a type of [[habitat]] [[habitat conservation|conservation]], for [[prairie]]s and habitats that lived alongside prairies. It is the act of restoring land that was once native prairie to how it once was. In North America this is usually defined as ''pre-settlement'', meaning before Europeans arrived. Much of this land is good for farming and has been plowed for planting crops or turned into pastures. In [[Illinois]], there was once 22 million acres (9 million hectares), now there are less than 2300 acres (920 hectares) of high-quality original prairie remaining.<ref>{{cite web|title=Illinois Prairies|url=http://dnr.state.il.us/education/podcasts/textfiles/prairies%20podcast.htm|publisher=IL DNR|accessdate=6 April 2013|archive-date=8 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140208122954/http://dnr.state.il.us/education/Podcasts/textfiles/prairies%20podcast.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> ==Invasive plants and trees== [[Invasive species]] are a big problem with prairies. Since fires cannot burn freely, many new species are taking over, and preventing sunlight from reaching shorter plants. In the United States, European [[buckthorn]] is a common problem. [[Garlic mustard]] is another. Often areas that once held a hundred different species of plants now only has three or four species. [[File:Oklahoma Tallgrass Prairie.jpg|thumb|Oklahoma Tallgrass Prairie]] ==Restoration techniques== *[[Controlled burn]]s *Weeding *Brush cutting *Seed collecting *Sowing ==References== {{reflist}} {{science-stub}} [[category:ecosystems]] [[Category:Conservation]]