Full Text of SR0129 103rd General Assembly
SR0129 103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | SENATE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, A prairie is a type of grassland and is the | 3 | | largest type of habitat in North America; and
| 4 | | WHEREAS, Prairies usually form on level or smoothly | 5 | | rolling landscapes; and
| 6 | | WHEREAS, Weather conditions in Illinois over thousands of | 7 | | years helped determine that prairies would exist in the State; | 8 | | climate in prairies is characterized by hot, dry summers and | 9 | | cold winters; when these conditions developed approximately | 10 | | 8,300 years ago, the tallgrass prairie became a major part of | 11 | | the Illinois landscape; and
| 12 | | WHEREAS, In 1820, Illinois had 22 million acres of prairie | 13 | | land and 14 million acres of forests; prairies were mainly in | 14 | | the northern two-thirds of the State with forests in the | 15 | | southern one-third; all but nine counties had large areas of | 16 | | prairies; in central Illinois, trees could only be found in | 17 | | scattered sites called "prairie groves" or along waterways; | 18 | | and | 19 | | WHEREAS, By 1900, most of Illinois' prairies were gone; | 20 | | the majority of these lands were converted to agricultural | 21 | | practices; by 1978, less than 2,300 acres of high quality |
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| 1 | | prairie remained in the entire State; most of the undisturbed | 2 | | prairie sites today are found along railroad rights-of-way, in | 3 | | pioneer cemeteries, and in places that are not suitable for | 4 | | farming; and | 5 | | WHEREAS, Because much of the prairie has been destroyed, | 6 | | many of the organisms that depend upon it for their habitat | 7 | | needs have been forced to move to new habitats or have become | 8 | | very scarce in the State; and
| 9 | | WHEREAS, It is not possible to return to the days of vast | 10 | | expanses of prairie in Illinois, as they are gone forever; | 11 | | today, we need to protect, manage, and learn from the prairie | 12 | | remnants that remain and restore prairie where we can; | 13 | | therefore, be it
| 14 | | RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED THIRD GENERAL | 15 | | ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we declare the third | 16 | | week of September 2023 as "Prairie Week" in the State of | 17 | | Illinois in order to promote the awareness of and appreciation | 18 | | for prairies; and be it further
| 19 | | RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | 20 | | presented to the Department of Natural Resources.
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