Overview

Named after a Potawatomi Native American word for “healing,” Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie near Joliet, Illinois, stretches across almost 20,000 acres—a restoration undertaking of unprecedented scale in the region. The site was once home to the Joliet Army Arsenal. Today it is the largest protected open space in the Chicago metropolitan area and the first national tallgrass prairie in the U.S. Forest Service system.

Through an award-winning partnership with the Forest Service, Midewin is the Wetlands Initiative’s longest-running restoration effort. For more than 20 years, TWI has worked closely with the Forest Service to restore native ecosystems here. More than just what people think of as “prairie,” Midewin is returning to the complex mosaic of habitats that once characterized the Prairie State, including marsh, sedge meadow, wet prairie, and rare dolomite wetlands.

As of Midewin’s 25th anniversary in 2021, TWI has so far worked on eight different parcels here, totaling almost 3,500 acres. Through these projects, we have modeled how a private organization can partner with a federal agency to accomplish significant things. In 2013, TWI’s very first restoration project at Midewin in partnership with the Forest Service received a Conservation and Native Landscaping Award from Chicago Wilderness.

At one time, prairie covered more than 60% of the Illinois landscape. Today, less than 0.01% remains in the state. Located just an hour’s drive from downtown Chicago, Midewin offers visitors a one-of-a-kind opportunity to experience a vast restored prairie–wetland landscape and its rare native plants and wildlife, including a herd of wild bison. TWI is proud to be partnering with the U.S. Forest Service to bring the prairie back to the Prairie State.

Learn more about TWI’s many different projects so far at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie.

Celebrate Midewin’s 25th anniversary with Bill Kurtis, legendary broadcaster and prairie enthusiast, who made this video for the occasion in 2021.