While the wetland plants returned on their own, the prairie plants did not, so GPF was responsible for planting the surrounding upland areas with locally collected native prairie and savanna species, and managing those areas using prescribed burns and exotic species control. The Middle Fork restoration was so successful, in 1999 the Champaign County Forest Preserve District again teamed with GPF to begin another prairie planting. Called the Dowell Trails, this 279 acre section of the Lake of the Woods Forest Preserve is laced with over 3 miles of pedestrian and bicycle trails. With GPF providing a diverse mixture of native seeds, and the Forest Preserve District providing the equipment, we planted the first 4 acres in the spring of 2000. Each year, GPF conducts several community education projects.
Volunteers lead field trips to our prairie preserves.
We also sponsors lectures and workshops on such topics as propagation of prairie plants, landscape gardening with prairie plants, prairie wildlife, and origin of the prairie. Occasionally, GPF sponsors workshops to allow members to become certified for conducting prescribed burns. The workshops were developed with funds from a grant provided by the Illinois Department of Conservation. In 1994, GPF launched an ambitious project to propagate and sell native plants in order to provide funding for an internship program. Every spring and summer, we hold several native plant sales, selling hundreds of native prairie plants to the community, which provides citizens with plants for their prairie gardens, and promotes the use of native plants in landscaping.