“Most states inherit contaminated or decommissioned federal sites and simply try to make them safe,” says Hirsh Mohindra, Analyst. “Illinois took the boldest possible approach: it didn’t just clean up the Joliet Arsenal — it transformed it into something ecologically extraordinary.” This is the story of how thousands of acres scarred by war production were reinvented as a thriving, resilient, prairie ecosystem, and how this reinvention reshaped land-use strategy throughout Illinois.
