The Nachusa Grasslands was teeming with life Saturday, Sept. 20, with the 4,100-acre site showcasing its flora and fauna during the annual Autumn on the Prairie fall festival.

Hundreds of people visited the event on Lowden Road, southeast of Oregon near Franklin Grove, as volunteers and staff offered tours and standing displays where everyone could learn more about the prairie and its inhabitants.

More than a dozen guided hiking tours focusing on everything Grasslands – wildflowers, grassland birds, plants – complemented a tent where kids could see aspects of the prairie ecosystem and touch hides and seed pods.

Friends of the Nachusa Grasslands President Bernie Buccholz led nearly 20 people on the “Prairie Meets Savanna” hike, explaining how former cropland is being restored alongside the oak savanna, which borders sandstone rock outcroppings and a recovering wetland.

Other events helped explain the complex interactions that create and maintain the prairie, highlighting how all the plants, insects, and animals make Nachusa ”a remarkable and unique place".

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A bison walks with the herd at the Nachusa Grasslands, 2075 Lowden Road, Franklin Grove, on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025. Wagon rides out to the prairie to see the bison were offered during the Grasslands' annual Autumn on the Prairie event. (Earleen Hinton)

A live birds of prey display, offered by the Northern Illinois Raptor Rehab and Education, also gave visitors an opportunity to see owls, falcons and hawks up close.

But the big draw was the prairie’s biggest resident, the bison.

Volunteer guides rode with trailers full of visitors out on to the prairie for a chance to see the bison up close.

“There’s a very big bull right there. He probably weighs around 1,700 pounds,” one of the guides told his trailer full of camera-clicking visitors.

With a little encouragement from edible treats, a large portion of the 100-or-so herd – including bulls, cows and their calves – politely watched as a steady stream of tractors and trucks pulled the trailers past them about 250 yards west from the visitor center.

The 4,100-acre Nachusa Grasslands is owned and operated by the Nature Conservancy.

The Friends of Nachusa Grasslands is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 2008 by volunteers dedicated to providing for the long–term care and management of the grasslands.

The Grasslands “consists of large remnant prairie, woodlands and wetlands being reconnected through habitat restoration to create one of the largest and most biologically diverse grasslands in Illinois,” the Friends of Nachusa Grasslands website says. “Working hand in hand with conservancy staff, a dynamic community of volunteer stewards collect and plant seeds; manage invasive species; repair wetlands; and conduct controlled burns in order to preserve, protect and share this precious endangered ecosystem.”

Autumn on the Prairie takes place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. the third Saturday in September. Next year’s date is Sept. 19.

For information, visit nachusagrasslands.org.