A rare stretch of virgin prairie has received yet another reprieve from the bulldozer, with the Federal Aviation Administration telling the Tribune that Chicago Rockford International Airport has agreed to delay construction until June 1.
The airport’s previous agreement to refrain from construction ended Tuesday.
The airport wants to build a road through the Bell Bowl Prairie, one of the last remaining places in the state where prairie exists much as it did 8,000 years ago. Conservationists are fighting the road in the name of rare plants and animals found on the 5-acre stretch of land, including the federally endangered rusty patched bumblebee.
