Palos Restoration Project - Blog

Hidden Pond Woods September 13, 2020

9/17/2020

Sunday September 13, Hidden Pond Woods
Despite the soaking rain Saturday, we managed to keep dry while collecting seed on the Hidden Pond Prairie. We had great help from two mom/daughter teams, first time Palos volunteers Juana and Dorothy and returning heroes Meghan and Hollyn, and garnered a variety of native species, which will go largely in the areas near Kean Ave recently cleared of brush.

Many monarchs were active in the prairie, showing a special fondness for the nectar of the native field thistle. It was a truly lovely morning and a great time to be outdoors.

Return to the Burn
Last Saturday Joe planned to cut and burn brush; the rain said otherwise. We'll try again this Saturday, September 19 at McMahon, and again Sunday afternoon at Black Partridge.

Yesterday I went to Zoo Woods to help John Plunkett and a group of volunteers cut buckthorn. Coincidentally, last time we burned, March 18, was also at Zoo Woods. That Friday the coronavirus shutdown was announced and our eager fire-starters took a long break. Now we're coming back.

Paddock Woods September 5, 2020

9/10/2020

Paddock Woods Saturday September 5
We collected seed in Paddock on Saturday morning, on a cool morning that was sheer delight. We collected some grasses, a few berries and a lot of desmodium (the seeds attached to our clothing added to our collection even as they necessitated a session of picking/scraping ourselves clean in the parking lot).

Paddock has so much going on, rolling hills and ravines, a wealth of open woodland, and a great variety of native plants. Check the photos below which were taken primarily at Paddock, McClaughrey Springs, and Swallow Cliff, its neighbors to the west.

McClaughrey Springs Woods August 29, 2020

9/2/2020

McClaughrey Springs Woods Saturday August 29
Thanks to Maggie from Friends of the Chicago River and Drew from Chicago Audubon for joining us on this day. We did some light brush cutting, the first time I've set bowsaw to woody since March. We did not burn, mostly cutting and dropping smaller honeysuckle re-sprouts, yet it was a pleasure to have the tools back in hand.

We worked near Mill Creek, in an area originally cleared several years ago on a fun winter day. Some spots have filled in nicely, while a big chunk of the area still needs selective tree thinning to get more sun to the ground. Like all our sites, it's a work in progress.

Doug Bosco's been eager to pick up the brushcutter again, and got his chance Saturday. Herbiciders included Maggie, Jean, Diana, and Kathy. It's really tough to find all the targets when we're cutting the little stuff, requiring great diligence on their part. We also saluted Cyndi Duda, whose official retirement began two days prior.

Cranberry Slough August 22, 2020

8/26/2020

Cranberry Slough, Saturday August 22
We were at the south end of Cranberry, across 107th Street from the Model Airplane Flying Field at Morrill Meadow, clipping and picking weeds. Shortly after we arrived, Doug Bosco noticed the abundance of woodland brome growing nearby. He gathered more seed from those plants, in an hour or so, than half a dozen of us were able to gather at Cap Sauers the preceding week. It was the mother-lode.

This area was brush-mowed by contractors last year. Before their work, sections were all but impassable due to the thickness of the non-native brush. Now many natives are showing up, including bottlebrush grass, wingstem and boneset. The latter two are pollinator magnets. Weeds we removed included teasel and bull thistle (lots of that), and Joe was busy with his backpack sprayer as he so often is.

This illustrates the complementary roles that different players have in restoring an ecosystem. Volunteers don't have the mechanized equipment, or the time and numbers, to clear large areas of brush quickly. Grant writers get the funding, FPCC hires contractors to do that work, and the follow-up then falls to volunteer crews like ours, or to the Conservation Corps.

Interested parties can help us by volunteering with Palos Restoration Project, or by donating to Friends of the Forest Preserves to help fund their crews or the Forest Preserve Foundation, the not-for-profit supporting Forest Preserves of Cook County.

Cap Sauers Holding August 15, 2020

8/19/2020

Cap Sauers Holding, Saturday August 15
Saturday was devoted to collecting native seed, mostly woodland grasses like bottlebrush and woodland brome. We ranged over a large stretch on the west side of the site, allowing us to see more plants, and a greater variety, than we would on a typical brush-cutting day when we're confined to a smaller area.

This is one of the beauties of seed collecting. Another is that you get up close and personal with the good stuff, the plants we're trying to save, rather than arm-wrestling the troublesome species we're always trying to remove. It's serious fun.

I also had the good fortune to get to Ted Stone this week for more seed hunting; we did a spell in the woodland, then moved to the prairie under a beautiful blanket of clouds. The youngest one present was four months shy of her second birthday. Good times...

Paddock Woods August 8, 2020

8/10/2020

Paddock Woods Saturday August 8
We found ourselves near the intersection of Route 83 and Kean Avenue, clipping flowers from numerous teasel plants growing in disturbed areas near the road. Because this is what they do. And that is what we do.

Teasel: the stems are prickly, the leaves are prickly, the flowers are extremely prickly. What's not to like about this plant? Like cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum), the leaves join together around the central stem and hold rainwater. Allegedly, bugs trapped in the rainwater decay and feed nitrogen and phosphorus to the plant, though it is uncertain whether this qualifies as carnivory under scientific guidelines.

In one study, British researchers grew teasel plants and placed maggots into the leaf cup, then measured the effect of this extra nourishment on seed set and biomass. Because this is what researchers do.
journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0017935

As we clipped and bagged the teasel and thistle flowers, we encountered numerous pollinators and a goodly number of native plants in their midst. Getting rid of the invasive ones will help these natives hold and expand their ground and benefit native wildlife as well.

McMahon Woods & Fen August 1, 2020

8/5/2020

Saturday August 1,
Our last time at McMahon pulling white sweet clover, though the plants still present insist they'd welcome us back again. Many had gone to seed, making it important to get them into bagged without shaking it loose. Thank you Cyndi Duda for bringing your collapsible yard waste containers which expedited that process.

Our prairies are continuing to offer new treats, prairie blazing star (Liatris pychnostachya) and the early blooming goldenrods among them. Vibrant color warning!

We have several sites in Palos where these prairie plants can be viewed, some requiring a substantial hike in, others closer to the road. Contact us for more information; restorepalos@gmail.com or janaugust@sbcglobal.net or hit the 'Contact' button on the banner above.

McMahon Woods & Fen July 25, 2020

7/30/2020

Saturday July 25, McMahon Woods & Fen
Back to McMahon for another round of white sweet clover, this time sans the storm clouds that interrupted us two weeks ago. The sun shone bright on the prairie and the pollinators were abundant, as was the target plant.

We encountered a distressingly large number of smaller plants, which I doubt were detectable two weeks earlier. That's one curse of sweet clover; it grows for an extended period (flowers from July-September), so one assault is seldom sufficient. Yes, the repeated efforts seem to give a reduction in the population, but it does take that methodical work to get there.

Good to see John Marlin and Jim Tebo for the first time since March, to have Audra back, to have nearly a dozen volunteers come together on a warm July morning. Much appreciated!

The payoff is being surrounded by all these lovely native plants. Joe Pye weed and the sunflowers are blooming, and the prairie blazing stars are also kicking in. This purple beauty is yet another of my favorites, the plant that, according to Illinois Wildflowers, "resembles a fairy wand." How can one go wrong with that?

Cap Sauers July 18, 2020

7/22/2020

Cap Sauers Saturday July 18,
Had another engagement, thanking Doug Bosco, again, for his photos of the day. White sweet clover is still abundant in many places, and a small crew of die-hards braved the heat on this Saturday morning to go after some of it.

We never get it all but we don't expect to; the goal is to reduce future populations by getting rid of most of the flowers before they go to seed. We're making progress in some places, but it's like whack-a-mole. Hit it here, it pops up over there. Dang!

Two of the pictures below are of a swan family at Lake Katherine in Palos Heights. I've been watching them since mid-May, watching the babies (cygnets) get bigger. Last year's brood didn't survive, this year they're hanging on so far. It'll be maybe three months before they fly and I'll be checking in from time to time hoping to see the flying lessons. Here's a link to information on baby swans and their maturation.

McMahon Woods, July 11, 2020

7/15/2020

McMahon Woods & Fen, Saturday July 11
If it's July, there's white sweet clover on the prairie. We gathered at McMahon to pull a bit, meeting at Morill Meadow parking lot. Another sunny warm day, plenty of targets (though blessedly not as many as previous years), lots of summer blooms to admire, including Monarda (wild bergamot), yellow and purple coneflowers, rosinweed, and more.

Pollinators were feasting, with bees all over the Monarda in particular. Jean also found a couple interesting larvae and caterpillars, pictured below. Anyone with bug ID skills, please take a look.

Our luck held 'til almost 11:30, when Doug spotted storm clouds to our west. They moved in pretty quickly, chasing us to the parking lot and almost catching us. Good eye Doug!!

Hidden Pond
Tuesday I joined Mary Busch at Hidden Pond, where she planned on tackling the wild parsnip that grows along Kean Avenue. We only found a couple viable plants - thanks are in order to the Conservation Corps or another mystery herbicider, as we saw evidence of spraying in several locations.

Switching gears, we went after - what else? - white sweet clover, clearing the stretch from Christina south to Woodland Drive, though much of that was done by volunteers last time out June 28.