Fifteen miles from downtown Detroit, goldenrods, asters, and blazing stars shine in a sea of grass. Bats, butterflies and birds skim the air; foxes rustle in bluestem and Indian grass. This is Sibley Prairie, Michigan’s largest remaining lakeplain prairie—a landscape that exists almost nowhere else on Earth. But its survival depends on a fundraising effort, and the clock is ticking.
A 440-acre property, which includes most of Sibley Prairie, is owned by Fritz Enterprises, a scrap metal processing company. Last summer the company scheduled it for auction, putting the land at high risk of being developed into more of the housing, industrial, and commercial sprawl that already surrounds it. At the last moment, Michigan Land Conservancy secured an option to buy the land from Fritz Enterprises, backed by a lender.
Unique to the Great Lakes coasts, lakeplain prairie is a rare kind of tallgrass prairie that floods in winter and spring. “It’s not just an endangered Michigan resource,” says Jack Smiley, president of Michigan Land Conservancy and a leader of the Save Sibley Prairie Coalition. “It’s a globally rare ecosystem.”
Most people don’t think of Michigan as a grassland state, but it used to have thousands of acres of native prairie, says Jill Lewis, executive director of Southeast Michigan Land Conservancy (SMLC), part of the coalition. Before Europeans came, there were 160,000 acres of lakeplain prairie here. Now, there are fewer than 1,000. “It’s an amazing natural and cultural resource for the state,” Lewis says.
The property is close to existing preserved land, making it a crucial piece in the region’s patchwork of remaining wild space, supporters say. Securing it would bring the total protected area of Sibley Prairie to 675 acres. The parcel contains woodlands, wetlands, and oak savanna, though the prairie is its rarest habitat. Some 200 plant species grow on the property, which also supports uncommon and diverse animals—including species considered at risk in Michigan, like American bumblebees, Barn Owls, Blanding’s turtles, pickerel frogs, and northern flying squirrels.
Conservationists say Sibley Prairie is an especially vital lifeline for grassland birds, whose populations have dropped by more than 40 percent in the last 50 years, a faster decline than any other group of North American birds. Eastern Meadowlarks, Dickcissels, Upland Sandpipers, and Bobolinks all take refuge on the property. “There’s very little habitat left for them,” says Jim Bull, former president of the Detroit Bird Alliance, an Audubon chapter and one of 13 organizations in the coalition. “Any piece that we can save is really important.”
The prairie supports a variety of other migrating birds, too. Five miles from the Detroit River, it sits at a point where the Mississippi and Atlantic Flyways converge, making it a vital rest stop for migrants big and small, from Sandhill Cranes to Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, along with raptors like Bald Eagles and Short-eared Owls.
Now, the Save Sibley Prairie Coalition has until December 11 to raise $6 million to buy the property. If they don’t meet that goal, the land will go to auction as planned. Eventually, the coalition members hope to raise another $3.7 million to restore and manage it. That funding would allow them to hire staff, remove invasive species, conduct prescribed burns and native planting, and create trails, a parking lot, and community programming. The coalition plans to identify a nonprofit or government entity to own and steward the land, such as SMLC, or Sibley Prairie’s local Brownstown Township.
“It’s survived all these years, despite development around it,” Lewis says. “With some help, it can thrive, expand and become this beautiful destination down the road from Detroit.”
The land is home to rich layers of history, too. Indigenous peoples lived here for millennia, using traditional practices to maintain the land’s health—like using fire to keep grassland open and thriving, which attracted bison. (Settlers drove both people and bison out, with Michigan’s last bison said to have been shot on Sibley Prairie.) During the Great Migration, while many Black southern transplants moved to Detroit, others chose to farm the affordable, wet prairieland. Coalition members are exploring how to bring back traditional land stewardship practices, and highlight these histories through signage and exhibits.
Today, many of the nearly 5 million people who live in Southeast Michigan have limited access to green and natural spaces. Sibley Prairie, the coalition argues, could powerfully expand and democratize that access. Just 6 percent of Detroit’s land is parkland, versus a national average of 19 percent in other cities. Detroit is also the largest Black-majority city in the United States, reflecting a broader justice issue: Nationwide, communities of color are three times as nature-deprived as white communities.
“Engaging local communities and helping them recognize the value of what’s left here is a really important part of this process,” says Antonio Cosme, co-founder of the Black to the Land Coalition, which connects people of color to nature, and is part of the Save Sibley Prairie Coalition. He envisions cookouts and 5Ks, school groups and hiking clubs, birding and community science. The Sibley coalition plans to connect bus lines and existing trails to the area. Lewis imagines working with local universities and schools, to better research and restore this rare ecosystem.
So far, the coalition has received commitments for two million-dollar gifts, and has raised over $760,000 from smaller donors, according to Smiley, with individuals, corporations, and foundations from 45 U.S. states, Canada, and beyond chipping in. With grassroots fundraising efforts like this, “sometimes it comes down to the wire, and this is a bit of a nail-biter,” Lewis says. “I’m pretty optimistic, but we need everybody’s help.”
