Palos Restoration Project - Blog

McMahon July 30, Sagawau July 31, 2022

8/4/2022

McMahon Woods & Fen Saturday July 30
We returned for another bout with melilotus alba (white sweet clover), our fourth of the season. This time, at least, it seemed we were pushing it back a bit. We'll return again this Saturday, and I fully expect to be back again next summer. This stuff fights back, it's tenacious.

Our weed-pulling crew numbered eight of so, including first-time Palos volunteer Lisa, and Brea, who didn't get enough of melilotus the previous Sunday at Black Partridge. Lisa also spotted a really cool moth caterpillar, pictured below. We also had two people cutting and stacking brush and four toting backpack sprayers across the prairie. Rock stars one and all!

Sagawau Environmental Learning Center, Sunday July 31
With an open fifth Sunday, I made my way to Sagawau to join naturalist Laura and a small group of volunteers cutting brush. It's truly pretty there right now and I highly recommend a visit to see all their colors of summer.

The brush-cutting was reminiscent of honeysuckle days at McMahon, where bittersweet vine ties all the targets into a tangled mess. Here the offending vine was grape, with the effect the same. The volunteer group handled it well and punched a nice hole into the thicket of brush at Sagawau fen.

Ecologist Walk July 23, Black Partridge Woods July 24, 2024

7/28/2022

Paw Paw Woods Ecologist Walk, Saturday July 23
Kristin Pink led a large group on this walk, emphasizing the rich mix of native shrubs found at Paw Paw. What's most notable about Kristin? Her abundance of passion for her work and for the land she helps manage.

We saw a number of those shrubs, learned some ID tips, heard about the history of the site and land management practices, and got some hill climbing practice at the same time. One walker from outside Palos (a flat-lander) spoke a day or two later of muscle soreness from navigating the terrain.

Our walk was cut short due to nearby thunder and lightning, but we saw enough the whet the appetite for more. Paw Paw is a truly beautiful place and well worth the effort.

Black Partridge Woods Sunday July 24
We were quite the small group on this Sunday afternoon, pulling white sweet clover and snipping teasel near Bluff Road. We cleared the area where we began, near Goose Lake, then moved west to a pasture where we composted several bags of weeds.

We cut some teasel there, didn't even attempt to tackle the large infestation of melilotus (sweet clover). It was big and tall and insanely thick; we'd have needed forty people, maybe more, to clear that in the time we had left. So that will wait for another day, perhaps another strategy. Meanwhile, we got some good work done and saw numerous pollinators feasting on nectar plants in our work area.

Walkin' in the Rain
An hour after last Sunday's walk at Little Red Schoolhouse was canceled in a downpour, I made my way to Swallow Cliff. The rain was just a drizzle now (of course!) and the preserve was deserted.

Rain's aftermath is a fine time for plant photography; every surface glows with moisture and tiny droplets grace every picture. Simply beautiful!

Cap Sauers Holding, Swallow Cliff Walk July 16, 2022

7/21/2022

Cap Sauers Holding July 16, 2022
We were a small group, relocating near the junction of Ford Road and Will Cook Road where steward Margaret found an active population of Canada thistle. This was a largely overcast day, and relatively cool, making for a better time working in a spot with limited shade.

Some of the thistle was concentrated in small patches, though I suspect volunteers ranged farther afield once that low-hanging fruit was dealt with. Thanks to all who came, including first-time Palos volunteer Brea.

Trailblazers Walk at Swallow Cliff, Saturday July 16
Walk leader Bruce did another fine job, taking us from Forty Acres Woods through part of McClaughrey Springs, then on to Swallow Cliff. We had a big group, and a good time! Bruce has diverse interests; his opening remarks included a little geology, some meteorology, and Leave No Trace principles, all before we left the parking lot.

We also witnessed some of the numerous signs of high usage around the site. Once-narrow footpaths have, in some places, become six feet wide or more. It's a huge burden on the land, increasing erosion of a rare soil type, Lemont drift, that, once gone, is irretrievable.

McMahon Woods & Fen July 9, 2022

7/14/2022

McMahon Woods & Fen Saturday July 9
Unable to make this one myself, will rely primarily on pictures from Doug Bosco's FB post. It was another assault on white sweetclover (Melilotus alba) on the prairie at McMahon, a continuation of the prior Saturday's effort. The recent drought-like conditions (officially our area is "abnormally dry", one step better than the moderate drought affecting areas to our south and west) make our work tougher since the plants are harder to uproot from dry soil.

I've talked about melilotus in the past. It is a tenacious foe, a prolific seeder that, unlike many non-natives which can be controlled by prescribed fire, has seeds that seems to respond enthusiastically (by germinating) when a field is burned. It's been known to persist in fields that have been burned annually for ten years. Very tough, which is why we're typically back at McMahon a couple times or more, each year. Click here for a deep dive into this plant.

McMahon Woods July 2, McClaughrey Springs July 3, 2022

7/6/2022

McMahon Woods & Fen Saturday July 2
We came looking for white sweet clover and found more than we bargained for. Despite a dozen or so hard-working volunteers, we were only able to make inroads into a pretty large stretch of the plant. So we'll be back there again this Saturday; not the first time we've had multiple July visits to this site.

On a more positive note, many of the summer natives are starting to bloom. We saw wild bergamot, butterfly milkweed, desmodium (tick trefoil) and others. There will be much more coming down the pike as summer advances, reason enough to put serious effort into invasive removal. Setting the table for our lovely native species!

In addition to our volunteers, we had Erin, Evelyn, Jim and Wyatt from FPCC's Palos crew, with all but Jim returning Sunday (Jim was on other duty that day).

McClaughrey Springs Woods Sunday July 3
Sunday's primary focus was dame's rocket, through we found a surprising (to me) amount of garlic mustard still standing. Both are well past flowering so it takes a few minutes to get the eyes to focus on the distinctive seed pods (siliques) for ID purposes.

Willow Springs Woods, Cranberry Slough Nature Walk, June 25, 2022

6/30/2022

Willow Springs Woods Saturday June 25
This was another thistle-hunting day, and I'm told they bagged a lot despite the rain that moved in. Missed this one due to another event, tip of the cap to the crew who hung in there.

Cranberry Slough Trailblazers Walk, Saturday June 25
This was led by Katie, one of the Friends of the Forest Preserves volunteers involved in this series of walks. As a former volunteer and intern with FOTFP, she knows the site well. Well enough to pick up the pace a bit as the light rain was on the brink of getting much heavier. She got us back to the parking lot just ahead of that.

She wasn't able to share all her fun facts about Cranberry but plans another walk next month. One I can share now; Katie was part of a crew that hand-wicked a patch of cattails in the drainage that crosses the site; to this day they have not returned. Great job!

Photography Walk Paw Paw Woods Wednesday June 29
This was hosted by Ed and Cece from the Forest Preserves CEP (Community Experiential Programming). The dynamic of such a walk is cool; someone stops to take a picture, someone else stops to see what caught their eye, and the rest of us follow suit. We saw a range of birds, insects and plants along the way, with each person's interest leading us to something different.

Cranberry Slough June 18, Black Partridge June 19, 2022

6/23/2022

Cap Sauers Holding Saturday June 18
Saturday morning was a thistle walk, volunteers clipping the flowers from non-native thistles as they walked the blue trail at Cap Sauers. It was a good day for butterflies, with many spotted feeding on the flowers as our group worked. A couple are pictured below.

Thanks to first-time Palos volunteer Francesca, and to Kevin Kuhn, recently retired from Forest Preserves Volunteer Resources. He was a great help to us on many occasions while employed with FPCC, and continued in that vein this weekend, also coming tom Black Partridge Sunday to complete a weekend double!

Nature Walk: McClaughrey Springs Saturday June 18
We had a large group of walkers at McClaughrey for the last of our spring walks with Palos Park Library, on a gorgeous late spring morning. We did a loop of 1.7 mi. pausing to talk from time to time (and to catch our breath at the top of the hill dubbed "Big Bertha".)

We're between spring ephemerals and summer flowers right now, so there weren't a lot of blooms to admire, but we had a good time just the same. A delightful group of people. We'll take a couple months off and resume walks in September.

Black Partridge Woods Sunday June 19
This was another thistle-lopping day with a smaller group of volunteers, and more heat, especially in mid-afternoon. It was also Father's Day - while that may have held our volunteer numbers down, the crowd of picnickers at Tampier Lake was large enough to fill every available parking space. Eventually I found a space and got the kayak on the lake for a spell. Beautiful!

Cranberry Slough June 11, 2022

6/16/2022

Cranberry Slough Saturday June 11
This was a cool morning - I wasn't able to come due to another commitment. Now we're fully into summer weed season, with reed canary grass, various thistles, and teasel all showing their (unwelcome) selves around the preserves.

Another favorite summer target is sweet clover; I've seen a lot of the yellow variety flowering lately, and the white should follow close behind. While these plants are a disaster in our natural areas, they are used in agriculture as a cover crop, for hay and pasture, and to enrich soil - it's a legume and fixes nitrogen to the soil.

That means it's not going away, another form of job security for restoration volunteers. ugh

Pioneer Woods June 4, McClaughrey Springs June 5, 2022

6/9/2022

Pioneer Woods Saturday June 4
Off we tramped in search of garlic mustard, from the Pioneer lot to Old Country Lane, then north to the trail junction. We found a goodly amount along the way. While we searched for weeds, Joe, Jim, and Carolyn were doing backpack spraying of other weeds.

All the way from Palatine came Cyndi Duda to lend a hand. Hadn't seen her for a spell, good to reconnect.

Swallow Cliff Woods Walk Saturday June 4
This was the first of several walks led by Friends of the Forest Preserves and their Trailblazers program. It was fun; while the location was Swallow Cliff, we started and finished at 40 Acres Woods and passed through a stretch of McClaughrey Springs along the way.

Bruce, the leader, knows the site and surrounding area well and did a super job. Thanks also to Sydney of FOTFP who organized this. Looking forward to the upcoming walks - we'll have one at Cranberry Slough on June 25 and another at Redgate Woods that was rained out last Monday, to be rescheduled.

McClaughrey Springs Woods Sunday June 5
We had a big group of pickers today, going after both garlic mustard and dame's rocket. We found plenty, too. The former was a bit harder to locate since all the flowers have dropped, but the less-strategic dame's rocket still was boldly showing its colors.

Such a great day, with a light breeze, tolerable temperature, and the soothing lushness of woodland greens. Thanks to all who came.

Paddock Woods May 28, 2022

6/2/2022

Paddock Woods Saturday May 28
Back to Paddock, near the Yellow Trail's eastern edge, for more garlic mustard. We found more than enough to justify our time there, with the occasional thick patch and much more of it scattered across the work area. We had a good group, ten or more, including first-time Palos volunteers Hal and Alex.

The plants have dropped their flowers now, making them a bit harder to locate, especially the smaller ones. I was impressed with new volunteer Alex, who, after seeing the plants briefly, was able to pick find one, from the trail, and ID it properly. Good eyes!