Figure 1: Top: Weston Cemetery Prairie, McLean County, Illinois, in the summer of 1977. This remnant five-acre pioneer cemetery prairie is surrounded on three sides by row crop agriculture and a railroad right-of-way leading to the grain elevator in the background. Fire management is used to reduce woody cover and promote species-rich forbs and grasses. Bottom: Railroad prairie located 16 miles west of Madison, Wisconsin, taken in 1964. These long, linear-shaped remnant prairies have been historically maintained by fire management of woody species by the railroad companies, however modern vegetation management uses herbicide. Removal of the natural fire regime is resulting in encroachment by fire intolerant woody species and the loss of fire dependent prairie species. (Photos by Roger C. Anderson)