A Rockford golf course will be turned into a prairie soon. It’s a multi-year project, but one organization just awarded Severson Dells Nature Center $25,000 to accelerate the process.
America in Bloom’s mission is to improve the quality of life in communities through flowers, plants and environmental efforts. It awarded the highly selective grant earlier this month.
Executive Director Laura Kunkle said Severson Dells was one of only six applicants who received the award.
"By turning this golf course — which was an important community asset, no doubt — and rewilding it, and because it was such a project focused on sustainability and environment, it made so much sense for what American Bloom is about," she said.
Kunkle said the project stood out on a national level. And she said that it’s an example of innovative and community-driven environmental stewardship.
"By re-imagining this land through restoration, they're going to return it to dynamic, self-sustaining ecosystem that supports biodiversity, improves water quality, and strengthens climate resilience," she said.
The 170-acre Eliot Golf Course on the city’s east side was dominated by turf grass and non-native plants. But the Center is transforming it into wildflowers and other native plants in prairie and oak savannah ecosystems.
With the addition of the new location, the organization is renaming itself the Wild Roots Nature Center.
The property is not open to the public yet.
