Palos Restoration Project - Blog

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.

Willow Springs April 18, Black Partridge April 19, 2026

4/23/2026

Saturday April 18, Cap Sauers Holding
Missed this one due to another commitment - with Earth Day on April 22, the preceding weekend was chock-full of Earth Day activities. Our volunteers returned to the area on the northwest side of Cap Sauers for another day of brush clearing, probably the last of winter-spring season..

Sunday April 19, Black Partridge Woods
After a couple months of being unable to burn brush piles, the weather finally cooperated. Though we were small in numbers (John, Jim, Jan, Anna, Lamees and Kathy, plus David and Eric from Tinley Resource Management) we got almost all of the already-cut brush burned plus another large swath cleared by David and Eric with brushcutter and chainsaw!

Other Earth Day/Earth Week Activities
On Saturday Little Red Schoolhouse hosted a small group of students from Evergreen Park High School who came to do restoration. Dave Branigan and I worked with naturalist Rebecca Moss to eliminate a thicket of honeysuckle, the ultimate 'sore thumb', nestled between the old schoolhouse building and Long John Slough. The students dove in with loppers and bowsaws, and less than two hours later, with a last-minute flurry, managed to down all the targets. They did so well!

Also on Saturday, a group of 20-25 Boy Scouts from the SW region(Portage Creek) joined Diana Krugat Paddock Woods, cutting honeysuckle on the north side of the Yellow Trail opposite the Palos Park North parking lot on Kean Avenue. They were on a five-miles hike through 40 Acre and Swallow Cliff Woods and stopped for a 90 minut4e session of brush-cutting.

We don't have any pictures or account of this - winging it based on two piles of hot embers spotted in that location late Saturday afternoon. My stringers must want a raise and are sending a message.

Willow Springs April 11, Hidden Pond April 12, 2026

4/16/2026

Willow Springs Woods Saturday April 11
Saturday was another foray into the land of multi-flora rose, where only the brave dare tread. While I missed this party, I salute the effort of those who came. With the all that MF rose, along with a decent amount of honeysuckle removed from the area, the chances of getting a future prescribed burn done are certainly enhanced.

Hidden Pond West Sunday April 12
Sunday the warming trend continued, with high winds that led to a game-time decision to not burn brush piles. With winds forecast in the mid-20 mph range by 3:00 pm, it wasn't worth taking the chance.

We were small in number but still managed a lot of cutting by quitting time, with two members of the FPCC Resource Management crew racking up a big stack of cut brush. While they worked in one area, the rest of us, including first-time Palos volunteers Kai and Julia, worked first on removing some outlier honeysuckles along the trail, then pushing a bit farther north to join the RM crew.

Next brush-cutting day we'll have a great jump-start and plentiful, dried fuel for the fires.

Paddock Woods April 4, McClaughrey Springs April 5, 2026

4/8/2026

Paddock Woods Saturday April 4
This weekend there were no bans on brush pile burns, though Saturday's rain was a bit of a confounder. in getting fires going. Fire #1 needed some love after break time to get it cooking, and fire #2 was still obstinate at 1:00 pm when your correspondent had to leave.

Contractors did brush mowing here recently and volunteers were expanding on their work, as well as knocking down a lot of smaller honeysuckles the brush-mower could not reach due to deadfall.

McClaughrey Springs Woods Sunday April 5
Had to skip this one prep for family brunch, but mostly to sample deviled eggs soon as they were made. Sunday was a much better day, with no rain and enough afternoon sun to get a small basketball game going on the driveway.

Meanwhile, back in the woods: Joy reported a good workday, and left one picture, seen below. It was a small volunteer group, given the holiday, and included our regional ecologist Kristin Pink. I trust fire-starting was not as problematic as one day prior.

Willow Springs Woods March 28

4/2/2026

Willow Springs Woods Saturday March 28
Another Saturday in the vicinity of Katydid Slough, working primarily on multi-flora rose in an area vying to become the MF Rose capital of Palos. Several of us missed this one, visiting No Kings events at different locations.

Brush pile burns were not allowed Saturday or Sunday; Forest Preserves crews were doing prescribed burns and the fire managers didn't want those crews diverted by a possible mishap on a brush pile burn, given somewhat low humidity and brisk breezes that increase the risk of such incidents. With the window for prescribed burns rapidly closing I can't argue with that reasoning. (Not getting to sample Iza Redlinski's soup at her Sunday Brookfield workday due to no fire for cooking - now THAT'S a sacrifice for sure.)

So volunteers slashed and dragged and built feeder piles for the next visit to this part of Willow Springs, on the north side of 95th Street opposite Crawdad Slough to the south.

With no Palos restoration activity last Sunday I escaped to Brookfield Prairie to help cut and stack buckthorn along the 26th Street side of the site. Over the last couple years volunteers have chipped away at a large thicket of buckthorn that runs west from 1st Avenue for several blocks. They've made remarkable progress despite its density and the usual presence of spring mud due to hydrology of the location.