Palos Restoration Project - Blog

July 4, 2026

7/8/2026

Owl Walk at Spears Woods
Last week I went to Spears for my second owl walk of the year. On a hot night we still had 20-25 people, and we outnumbered the owls by 20-25. Still a good walk; Claudia, the leader took us on a loop that landed (by design, it turned out) at the edge of Boomerang Slough as the sun dropped below the horizon.

At that point we beat a pretty quick retreat, with mosquitoes coming out in full force. Remember the good old days of summer drought? Ha! Can't ever make us happy.

Kayaking on Tampier Lake
My favorite solo kayak spot is Tampier Lake: big enough to paddle an hour or more without retracing paths, deep enough your paddle isn't dragging or hitting rocks, and never too crowded unless you go on a weekend.

Last Tuesday was fun, with enough wind to stir some small waves and keep things from getting boring. I was testing a hull repair after hitting some rocks in low water on the Des Plaines a few weeks back - stiill getting water so back to the garage for more repairs.

We didn't have any restoration scheduled in Palos last weekend; with the heat and rain that filled much of the week our stewards were prescient.

My town of Palos Heights had its annual parade Fourth of July Saturday. It's always a pleasure to sit with neighbors from a couple doors down and watch the closest thing to a small-town parade that you'll find in an urban megalopolis of six or seven million.

Fire trucks, sirens blaring, Shriners on mini-Model Ts, middle-school and high school bands, local businesses tossing candy to the kids, all good vibes on a day when citizens of a divided nation looked like we were groping for some shred of common ground.

Will we find it? Time will tell.

Away from the petty acts of humans, in natural areas our native plants grow and provide sustenance to the animals that sing and buzz and reproduce and die. We do all of that too and hope it's for a greater purpose.

McMahon Woods June 27, 2026

7/2/2026

Saturday June 27, McMahon Woods & Fen
We had another smallish group on the prairie for another day of melilotus alba (white sweet clover) removal. It's grown bigger over the last couple weeks and still was mostly pulled without a problem. Sometimes the multiple stem plants are problematic but I felt we did all right.

The joy of this task is the plants you encounter on the prairie, with something new blooming each visit. Two weeks ago it was grey-headed coneflower, this time I saw my first monarda and pale purple coneflower of the season. Beautiful!

Nature Walk at Sagawau
Not many showed up for this walk, unfortunate as naturalists Lorrie and Alexia did a stellar job, taking us to the prairie for thier recent blooms, which included lead plant and Culver's root that marked my first sighting of the season. They provide so much good information and share it so a layperson can understand it - Lorrie's description of the mechanics of a glacier's movement was terrific, as one example.

We appreciate Palos Park Mayor Nicole Milovich-Walters joining us for this walk.

Cap Sauers June 20, 2026

6/25/2026

Cap Sauers Saturday June 20
Before we reached the work site Margaret took us for a delightful tour, starting on the green trail to an area we've cleared copious amounts of brush in recent years, then heading south (I think...) until we reached the blue trail in another familiar spot, not far from Visitation Boys Camp location.

Along the way we spotted numerous native plants, some of the highlights being purple milkweed and fire pink. Invasive targets were reed canary grass and non-native thistles, each facing the fate of decapitation when found. I had to leave before we got into the swing of things, word choice intentional here.

McMahon June 6 & 13, McClaughrey Springs June 7, 2026

6/18/2026

We'll do a double post today since last week's fell by the wayside.

Saturday June 6 & 13, McMahon Woods & Fen
On the 6th we had half a dozen or more, in addition to the Palos Resource Management crew who helped Joe with backpack spraying. The rest of us pulled white sweet clover which was the earliest I've tackled this; the plants were quite small and few had begun flowering. This was quite a warm day - a harbinger of summer which arrives Sunday, officially at 3:24 am.

I missed the 13th due to another commitment and suspect by the time we get there again - this weekend is Cap Sauers - the sweet clover should be much larger and actively flowering. This is a truly tough one to eradicate with the seed bank able to produce new plants years after seed drop.

Sunday June 7, McClaughrey Springs Woods
On what might be Diana's last workday until fall we chased both garlic mustard and Dame's rocket, two members of the mustard family that have mastered the art of growing in our woodlands. The garlic mustard was past flowering but still hadn't dropped much seed so it was fair game, and its cousin was easier to find still holding a lot of flowers. We did all right.

Spent a couple hours on the 13th helping volunteers remove invasives, including mullein and burdock, with machetes. Gotta say, the release that you get swinging that tool is right there with tossing woodies on a fire!

Paddock May 30, McClaughrey Springs May 31, 2026

6/4/2026

Paddock Woods Saturday May 30
Small group of volunteers on this beautiful Saturday morn, a couple of us arriving late after visiting the recycle event at Sagawau. There was still garlic mustard out there, still in sufficient numbers to bring a group out chasing it.
The flowers are almost all gone from the GM, as well as most of the lookalike plants like sweet cicely. This makes

McClaughrey Springs Woods Sunday May 31
This was more a Dame's rocket party than garlic mustard hunt, with the former pest doing far too well in the area fronting Mill Creek. One consolation is what seems to be a reduced garlic mustard population. Perhaps we'll see the same with Dame's rocket as we continue to remove it the next couple years. Sunday Diana plans to work father wast in the preserve, near the La Grange Road underpass, so we'll meet at Swallow Cliff Woods North.

Paddock Woods May 23, 2026

5/28/2026

Paddock Woods Saturday May 23
We had a smallish, decent group of volunteers for this garlic mustard (GM) hunt, and after one false start your roving reporter arrived to find the volunteers deeper into the woodland than we normally get. Does this mean we're pushing the GM population farther back? I certainly hope so.

At any rate, we were able to find more than enough of the little invader to keep us busy and allow fairly frequent trips to the compost pile. Most of the flowers are gone by now making them a little harder to spot, and most of the flowers are gone from the lookalikes as well. Bottom line; ample targets still present, hoping they hadn't dropped too much seed before we got there.

Sunday at Swallow Cliff
was supposed to be more of the same but the weather deities had other thoughts, rolling a rain front through our area at around 7:00 am which didn't move out until after 10:00. Yes, we could have outlasted it, but that might have been Mr. Jan and one other volunteer, and then I wouldn't have had the time needed to drive out to Sunrise Greenhouse in Grant Park, buy a few more herbs and veggies, and then spend the rest of the day planting edibles in the yard.

Thank you Jim D for the tip on this very large greenhouse. You also gave us the chance to drive a stretch of corn country, which moves farther away each year with exurban sprawl. And I got to hang with my homey which is the best!

Cap Sauers May 16, Black Partridge May 17, 2026

5/20/2026

Cap Sauers Holding Saturday May 17
Another productive garlic mustard hunt! At the outset we weren't sure how many targets awaited us, and Margaret felt we might have to spread out over a wide area to utilize the volunteers present, but once we got into the woods, away from the path, we had no problem finds enough stems to keep us busy.

The fun part is always what you see along the way. One Saturday highlight was large numbers of wild hyacinth, Camassia scilloides, in bloom. They seem to be having a very good year.

Nature Walk at McClaughrey Springs Saturday May 16
This was the second of three walks with Jessica Rock and patrons of Palos Park Library. While our group was smaller than last month, they were just as much fun, One solo hiker we encountered along the way stopped, chatted, and ended up joining us for the duration of the walk. Yo, Adrienne!

Next month we will walk at Sagawau Environmental Learning Center, on the fourth Saturday, June 28, with a 1:00 pm start. Palos Park Mayor Nicole Milovich-Walters is expected to attend - it will be her second time out with us.

Black Partridge Woods Sunday May 18
John, Charlie D, Maddie from VRC and I were joined by three crew members from Resource Management, Amanda, Brian and Danny. We started along Black Partridge creek, in lowlands that generally are the prime source of garlic mustard. Like Saturday at Cap Sauers, we found ample targets to fill our morning, with each of us toting a near-full garbage bag to John's composting spot just before noon.

Along the way we were treated to a number of spring wildflowers, including the shooting stars that thrive at the site and the large stretches of wild ginger serve as groundcover there. We went into the upland and crossed a stretch where tree-thinning was done for a couple years in the recent past, areas that now have a great mix of native plants thriving where they formerly were shaded out. Very nice!

Chicago River Day May 9, 2026

5/13/2026

Paddock/McClaughrey Springs River Day Saturday, May 9
I was at another event (below), not certain if our local group worked one side of Kean Avenue at McClaughrey or split into two, with some going east of Kean into Paddock. Either way, it was a Chicago River Day with volunteers focused on pulling garlic mustard.

From Doug Bosco's FB post we had a good-sized group celebrating the virile crayfish (Faxonius virilis), the featured animal for this year's River Day and one of four crayfish native to our region. Interesting to know it has become invasive in parts of North America outside its native range as well as in Europe. Please, people, leave your crayfish at home when you travel.

The middle of May is still garlic mustard season, and we have a couple more weekends of picking to build on the good efforts of Saturday's team.

Kickapoo Woods River Day Saturday, May 9
Four of us (Joy, Neal, Nicole, and I) went to the Little Calumet boat launch at Kickapoo Woods for a canoe cleanup of the river, one of the more intriguing options Friends of the Chicago River offers. Two canoes, almost a mile of river, and an array of distressing trash awaited us.

Joy and Nicole nabbed a large intact piece of Styrofoam packaging, likely for a big-screen TV, and Joy also wrestled a big log off the muddy bank. Neal grabbed a board from some park district's picnic table as well as a plastic gas can. The worst, in my view, was all the small bits of Styrofoam, crumbled and more easily ingested by wildlife. It's a beautiful stretch of river and an honor to help with the cleanup.

Paddock Woods May 2, 2026

5/7/2026

Paddock Woods Saturday May 2
We had quite the corps of volunteers Saturday; thirteen from the FPCC NEWTS program (thank you Yuan, Rachel, Ellen, Jonathan, Patricia, Grace, Warren, Lexi, Ryan, Marcia, Ellen, Bryan, and Emma); another group from a Moraine Valley Community College class taught by Negin Almassi of Forest Preserves of Cook County, in addition to Maddie, Teri, and Emily from Volunteer Resources and a number of our regular volunteers.

The focus was garlic mustard, and we found enough to go around for a group this large. Volunteers picked and composted huge heaps of the stuff throughout the morning, while getting to see a good sampling of the native wildflowers currently in bloom. Paddock has a rich mix of natives and was a terrific site for this endeavor. Our heartfelt thanks to all who attended!

Willow Springs Woods April 25, Swallow Cliff April 26, 2026

4/29/2026

Willow Springs Woods Saturday April 25
In what turned out to be our last brush-cutting of the season, we tackled a tangle of honeysuckle, mostly, near Katydid Slough at the south end of the preserve. This is a spot we spent a large bloc of time clearing ten to fifteen years ago and has predictably seen some new invasive growth since then. We worked on a slope that lies above Katydid Prairie.

I had another stop later - see below - so Margaret Tobin sent a couple pictures for me to share. The big central patch of brush was eradicated, along with numerous outliers. With a modicum of luck our labors will help the next round of prescribed fire climb the slope and take out some of the inevitable invaders.

Nature Walk - Paddock Woods, Saturday April 25
Jessica Rock and patrons of Palos Park Library came to Paddock for the first of three spring walks, with a total of 17 walkers. That's more than I can recall on past walks and they were all a delight.

Numerous spring wildflowers were in bloom, including red and white (large-flowered) trillium, large flowered bellwort, buttercups and phlox and wild geraniums. The latter seemed a bit early this year, perhaps spurred by ample rain and recent warm days.

Swallow Cliff Woods Sunday April 26
With the proliferation of flowers, we chose to go after garlic mustard rather than cutting and burning brush. Garlic mustard has also thrived so we didn't have to look far for targets, starting along the brown trail coming out of the parking lot and eventually moving down the tan spur toward the stairs. The two sides of that trail mark the first spots volunteers cleared, starting over nine years ago.

We gathered multiple trash bags of GM for composting and by 11:00 or so were treated to a spot of sunshine, taking the edge off a cool morning. Much thanks to all who attended, including recent newbies Laura and Ryan and first-timers Ben and Alec.