Behind Monmouth-Roseville Junior High School, a small piece of Illinois is coming back. Black-eyed Susans have pushed their way toward the sun, other native plants are establishing themselves, and insects and birds are beginning to find a small landscape that, not so long ago, would have covered nearly everything students could see.

Tallgrass prairie.

"All of Roseville used to be tallgrass prairie," said Noelle Vance, the teacher leading the project.

At one time, tallgrass prairie supported a diversity of life comparable to a rainforest. Nearly all of it disappeared as the region was converted to farmland, taking much of that species diversity with it. The consequences reach further than most people realize. Insects pollinate roughly 80 percent of plants, with wind handling most of the rest, corn among them. But fruit, and much of what people actually eat and enjoy, depends on pollinators.

"The history of this area is people trying to survive," Vance said. "The early pioneers, when they came, that sod was a barrier for them." They needed to grow food. But generations later, we understand something those early settlers could not have fully appreciated.

"Now we know how important it is," Vance said, "and so we want to replenish it if we can."

At Monmouth-Roseville Junior High, that replenishment has begun with roughly 2,000 square feet behind the school. Another 2,000 square feet is planned, creating a 4,000-square-foot prairie reconstruction supported by a grant from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

Vance's personal interest traces back to a high school biology teacher who first introduced her to tallgrass prairie. She spent years afterward studying it and taking part in restoration projects before eventually returning to western Illinois and joining Monmouth-Roseville, where she happened to mention the interest during new-teacher orientation. The junior high principal had a response ready.

"I have a project for you."

Last year, about 32 seventh- and eighth-graders joined the prairie group. Students divided into teams and helped design plots, choosing plants according to where they would grow, then planted roots and seeds meant to last. Nature offered a lesson of its own almost immediately. The site flooded and a number of the roots were lost. Fortunately, agriculture students had been growing plants from seed in the greenhouse, and as the ground dried, the group adjusted its plans and planted elsewhere.

"It's still a work in progress," Vance said, "but it's looking pretty good this year."

That imperfection may be one of the project's best lessons. Restoring an ecosystem isn't a matter of planting flowers and walking away. Students have to observe, adapt, try again, and understand why one plant thrives where another doesn't. This year, the project will connect more closely with the school's new Intro to Ag course, giving students the chance to study plant science while taking part in the next round of seeding.

The lessons are not meant to stay confined to the plot itself. People already walk behind the building, some with their dogs, and they are beginning to notice what is growing there and ask questions. Once someone knows what to look for, Vance said, the landscape itself starts to change in their eyes.

"You begin to see what's sort of the native plants and what it should look like," she said. "It's breathtaking, and you're like, 'I want more of that.'"

That ability to see may be the project's greatest purpose. Pollinators remain essential to the plants and foods people depend on, but protecting something first requires recognizing it. That is what the project is ultimately trying to teach: the history of the ground beneath students' feet, the plants that belong here, what was lost, why it was lost and what might still be recovered.

"If kids don't care about it," Vance said, "they're not going to know to protect it."

Four thousand square feet will not restore the Illinois prairie. Nobody involved believes it will. But behind a junior high school in Roseville, a group of students is doing what it can with the ground entrusted to it, "our little part here in Roseville," as Vance calls it.

Sometimes that is how restoration begins. First, you learn what was there. Then you learn to see it. Finally, you help something come back.