As Americans celebrate 250 years since the founding of the United States this July, it's worth asking a different kind of question:
What did the Midwest look like 250 years ago?
Long before highways, subdivisions, drainage tiles, and row crop agriculture transformed the landscape, the Midwest was one of the most diverse and productive ecosystems on Earth. Vast prairies stretched to the horizon. Oak savannas dotted the landscape. Wetlands filtered water and buffered floods. Rivers meandered freely across broad floodplains.
The landscapes we know today would have been nearly unrecognizable.
While we can't turn back the clock, we can learn from the ecosystems that sustained wildlife, protected soil, and supported human communities for thousands of years.
Indigenous Stewardship: The Original Land Managers
Perhaps the most important part of the Midwest's ecological story is often the most overlooked.
The landscapes encountered by European settlers were not untouched wilderness.
For thousands of years, Indigenous nations actively shaped and stewarded these lands through deep ecological knowledge passed from generation to generation.
One of the most important tools used throughout the Midwest was fire.
Prescribed burning was conducted for many reasons:
- Maintaining open prairie and savanna habitats
- Improving forage for wildlife
- Increasing the abundance of useful plants
- Reducing hazardous fuel buildup
- Improving hunting opportunities
- Keeping travel corridors open
- Encouraging biodiversity
These burns were carefully timed and strategically applied. Far from being destructive, they helped sustain some of the most biologically rich ecosystems on the continent.
The towering prairies, open oak savannas, and abundant wildlife observed by early settlers were often the result of centuries of intentional stewardship.
Many of the restoration techniques used today—including prescribed fire, invasive species management, and habitat diversification—echo principles Indigenous communities understood long before ecology became a scientific discipline. This is known today as Traditional Ecological Knowledge or TEK. This is just one of plethora of ecological knowledge passed down and improved on from generation to generation of indigenous people.
As restoration practitioners, conservationists, and landowners, we have much to learn from these traditions. It's about reciprocity between different people, and people and the land.
Restoration is not simply about restoring plants. It is about restoring relationships between people and the land.
Understanding the role Indigenous stewardship played in shaping Midwest ecosystems helps us recognize that successful conservation has always depended on active, thoughtful management—not simply leaving the landscape alone.
Over the past 250 years, Indigenous peoples were forcibly removed from much of their ancestral land. Languages, traditions, and cultural connections to the landscape were intentionally suppressed. In the process, we did not just lose human relationships—we lost ecological relationships as well.
We lost knowledge of how to live with fire instead of fearing it. We lost generations of place-based understanding about plants, wildlife, and natural systems. We lost stewardship practices that had sustained some of the most diverse ecosystems in North America. We lost our relationship with the people who curated this beautiful landscape, they lost much, much more.
As we reflect on the last 250 years, we should celebrate many achievements. But we should also recognize mistakes, learn from them, and continue repairing relationships—with people and with the land itself.
The future of conservation and restoration depends on both.
Wisconsin: Where Prairie, Savanna, and Boreal Forest Met
Much of Wisconsin existed as a remarkable transition zone between multiple ecosystems.
To the south, prairies and oak savannas dominated the landscape. Massive bur oaks stood above diverse communities of grasses and wildflowers maintained by frequent fire. Wetlands, sedge meadows, and marshes filled low-lying areas, creating habitat for migratory birds and wildlife.
Moving northward, the landscape gradually transitioned into dense forests. The great boreal forest extended south from Canada into northern Wisconsin, supporting species more commonly associated with northern climates. Spruce, fir, pine, and paper birch created a dramatically different ecosystem than the prairies and savannas found further south.
This meeting of ecosystems made Wisconsin one of the most ecologically diverse regions in the Midwest.
Today, many of these habitats remain fragmented or greatly reduced. Oak savannas, in particular, are among the rarest ecosystems in North America, with less than one percent of their historic extent remaining.
Indiana: The Crossroads of Eastern Forests and Midwestern Prairies
Many people think of Indiana as farmland today, but prior to settlement it was a remarkably diverse landscape.
Northern Indiana supported extensive wetlands, marshes, and prairie systems. Notably, northwestern Indiana and into northeastern Illinois housed the "Everglades of the North".
At its peak, this massive wetland system saturated over one million acres. It was a globally significant ecosystem, teeming with massive concentrations of waterfowl, fish, and fur-bearing mammals. Central portions of the state contained large areas of prairie and savanna. Southern Indiana transitioned into hardwood forests that connected to the eastern deciduous forests stretching toward the Appalachian Mountains.
The result was an ecological crossroads where eastern forests met Midwestern grasslands.
Oak-hickory forests dominated many upland areas while prairie openings, wetlands, and savannas created a complex patchwork of habitats that supported a wide variety of wildlife.
Much of Indiana's original wetlands were eventually drained for agriculture, while fire suppression contributed to the decline of prairie and savanna habitats.
Today, restoration efforts across Indiana increasingly focus on rebuilding these lost connections between forests, grasslands, and wetlands.
Michigan: Water Shaped Everything
Few places in North America have been more influenced by water than Michigan.
Surrounded by four of the five Great Lakes, Michigan's ecosystems developed around a complex network of coastlines, wetlands, rivers, dunes, forests, and inland lakes.
The southern portion of the state included oak savannas, prairies, and wetlands similar to neighboring states. Further north, expansive forests covered much of the landscape. Coastal dunes along the Great Lakes supported plant communities found almost nowhere else on Earth.
Wetlands played an especially important role throughout Michigan. These systems filtered water, buffered floods, stored carbon, and provided critical habitat for migratory birds traveling along the Great Lakes flyway.
The ecological diversity created by Michigan's water-rich landscape remains one of its defining characteristics today.
Illinois: The Prairie State Was Once a Global Ecological Treasure
It's difficult to overstate how dramatically Illinois has changed over the past 250 years.
When early settlers arrived, they encountered one of the largest expanses of tallgrass prairie in the world. Roughly 22 million acres of prairie covered much of the state, particularly across central and northern Illinois. During the growing season, grasses such as Big Bluestem, Indian Grass, and Prairie Cordgrass often reached heights of six to eight feet. In some areas, a person on horseback could disappear entirely into the vegetation.
But prairie was only part of the story.
Along rivers and streams, expansive wetlands and floodplain forests filtered water and provided critical habitat for wildlife. Oak savannas occupied the transition zones between prairie and woodland, creating open, park-like landscapes with scattered bur oak and white oak trees towering above a sea of native grasses and flowers.
These ecosystems supported astonishing biodiversity. Greater prairie chickens performed their spring mating dances on open grasslands. Elk and bison moved across vast prairies. Millions of migratory birds depended on wetlands and grasslands during their annual journeys.
Today, more than 99.9 percent of Illinois' original prairie has disappeared, making prairie remnants among the rarest ecosystems in North America.
Yet even small prairie restorations reconnect us to this remarkable ecological legacy.
Iowa: The Tallgrass Prairie Empire
If Illinois was the Prairie State, Iowa was the heart of the tallgrass prairie ecosystem.
Prior to settlement, an estimated 85 percent of Iowa was covered by prairie. Early explorers described endless grasslands stretching beyond the horizon. During summer, flowering plants painted the landscape with shades of purple, yellow, white, and blue. In autumn, prairie grasses turned copper, bronze, and gold.
What made these prairies remarkable wasn't just what could be seen above ground.
Beneath the surface, native prairie plants developed root systems extending ten to fifteen feet deep. These roots built rich organic soils over thousands of years, creating some of the most productive farmland on Earth.
Prairies also supported a vast array of wildlife. Bison, elk, and deer roamed freely. Pollinators flourished among hundreds of flowering species. Ground-nesting birds found shelter in dense grasslands.
The ecological processes that built Iowa's legendary soils were not accidental. They were the result of thousands of years of interaction between native plants, grazing animals, fire, climate, and human stewardship.
Today, less than one percent of Iowa's original prairie remains.
Minnesota: Where Ecosystems Collided
Minnesota occupied a unique position in the Midwest because it sat at the crossroads of multiple major ecosystems.
The southwestern portion of the state was dominated by prairie. Hardwood forests covered much of the southeast. Vast pine forests stretched across the north. Wetlands, lakes, and rivers connected them all.
This meeting of ecosystems created one of the most biologically diverse regions in North America.
Prairie pothole wetlands dotted the landscape, providing essential habitat for migratory birds. Hardwood forests supported songbirds, mammals, and pollinators. Prairies offered nesting grounds for grassland birds and habitat for countless insects.
Minnesota's ecological richness made it a critical waypoint for wildlife moving across the continent. Millions of migratory birds passed through these habitats each year, relying on healthy ecosystems for food, shelter, and rest.
The state's diversity reminds us that healthy landscapes rarely consist of a single habitat type. Instead, they function as interconnected systems that support wildlife across seasons and generations.
Restoration Isn't About Going Backward
When people hear the term "restoration," they sometimes imagine recreating a perfect snapshot from the past.
But restoration isn't about turning back time.
It's about understanding what made these ecosystems resilient and applying those lessons today.
And one of the most important lessons is that these landscapes were not functioning independently of people. They were functioning because people were actively engaged in stewardship.
For much of the last century, conservation often focused on protecting land by separating people from it. Increasingly, we're recognizing that successful ecosystems frequently depend upon active management, cultural knowledge, and long-term relationships with place.
The native plant communities that built healthy soils, supported wildlife, filtered water, and adapted to changing conditions did not exist in isolation. They were part of larger ecological and cultural systems that included human stewardship.
As we think about the future of restoration, we should not only be restoring prairies, wetlands, woodlands, and savannas. We should also be rebuilding our connection to the land itself and creating opportunities to learn from Indigenous perspectives that have sustained these ecosystems for generations.
Many of the challenges we face today—declining biodiversity, invasive species, degraded soils, and water quality concerns—cannot be solved simply by recreating the past.
But they can be addressed by restoring some of the relationships, knowledge, and stewardship principles that helped these landscapes thrive in the first place.
What Will the Next 250 Years Look Like?
The people who planted oak trees 250 years ago never sat in their shade.
The prairies that built our soils developed over centuries. The ecosystems that supported wildlife and clean water were the result of countless generations making decisions that benefited the future.
As we celebrate America's 250th birthday, it's worth considering the legacy we're leaving behind.
What native species will still be growing here 250 years from now?
What habitats will future generations inherit?
What landscapes are we creating today?
What will our relationship look like with the indigenous people?
What will our collective relationship with the land look like?
Whether you're restoring a prairie, planting native wildflowers, establishing an oak woodland, or simply adding a few native plants to your yard, you're contributing to a much larger story.
The next 250 years start with the choices we make today.