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Spears Woods January 25, Swallow Cliff January 26, 2025

1/30/2025

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Spears Woods Saturday January 25
Saturday was a volunteer day as well as an Atrium Landscape tree-thinning day, also augmented by the presence of the FPCC Palos crew, so we had three distinct worksites going and a flurry of activity. Volunteers were positioned in the middle, along the Yellow Trail near Hogwash Slough. Atrium to our south (after they finished some of our volunteers began lighting the log piles, which went up readily - it's all about the fuel). The Forest  Preserves crew was to our north.

We cut and burned, primarily honeysuckle and multi-flora rose with some larger logs mixed in with three volunteers chainsawyers on site. A sparkling blue sky and moderating temps made it a delightful day to play in the woods, and play we did.

Swallow Cliff Woods Sunday January 26
Sunday we had another great volunteer group, and were graced once again by the FPCC Palos crew. First-time Palos volunteer came at the invitation of her uncle Dan, another sparkling example of the "family plan"! Volunteers took one thicket of honeysuckle, the crew took a second, and by noon we had a lovely stretch of open woodland along the trail where we've been the last two workdays. 

​The small amount of snow we've had in January isn't enough for cross-country skiing, though it was adequate to ease pulling a sled load of tools in to the site. Thanks, Tom for doing that!
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Paddock Woods January 18 & 19, 2025

1/23/2025

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Paddock Woods Saturday & Sunday, January 18 & 19 
We doubled at Paddock last weekend. Saturday volunteers cut and burned brush, along with a couple brush piles left from earlier work, while a commercial crew from Atrium Landscape thinned trees at a nearby location. We had a large group helping and accomplished quite a bit.

Sunday a handful of us returned to burn the remaining piles from Atrium's Saturday work. The first day of our recent cold spell and decidedly sub-zero wind chill (something best avoided) was a test. We did quite well again, especially given the fuel we were burning. Simple fact: some green woods, like buckthorn and honeysuckle, burn remarkably well. Others, like maple, basswood, and elm, are moist and difficult to ignite quickly. We had much more of the latter than the former.

Nonetheless, by 1pm all the piles were burning - your roving reporter had to bail before noon due to another commitment. Fine job by all involved over the two-day weekend! Note: nothing motivates fire-starters more than cold fingers and toes.
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McMahon January 11, Hidden Pond January 12, 2025

1/16/2025

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McMahon Woods & Fen Saturday January 11
Missed this one due to another commitment, heard from several who were present that it was another bare-knuckle brawl with the Asian bittersweet vine besmirching this otherwise lovely site.

Large expanse of prairie in the center of the site? Got that.
Wonderful diversity of native prairie plants? Got that.
Rare fen habitat a little farther west? Ditto.
Innumerable vines ranging from small and thin, best suited to tripping passersby, to mature ones thicker than your forearm that grow up trees and shrubs and tie everything together? Yeah, we got that too.

It's tough eliminating the bittersweet yet volunteers come back time after time, making a big dent in it. Tip of the cap to all of them! On a cold morning they had no trouble keeping warm, feeding copious amounts of bittersweet, honeysuckle, and others onto multiple fires. They were joined by members of the FPCC Resource Management Palos crew whose efforts were also a great help!

Hidden Pond Woods West Sunday January 12
Arrived during a light snowfall to find three members of the Palos RM crew opening the gate. They graciously offered to start a fire while I awaited for our volunteers, and had a good hot blaze going in short order. Thanks, Graciela, Brian, and Dana. While they dealt with hazard trees - leaners, potentially 'widowmakers', volunteers went after brush.

We had a most productive day. For months we'd been nibbling around the edges of a nasty thicket of brush growing alongside the multi-use trail. Sunday we jumped right in, Jim brushcutting, Joe chainsawing, while the rest of us - Meredith, Joy, and Frank hauling and burning while Kathy herbicided - hustled to keep up. We refueled on cookies and oranges at break time, and by noon had 'most everything cut and burned giving a terrific sense of accomplishment.


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Cap Sauers Holding, January 4 & 5, 2025

1/9/2025

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Cap Sauers Holding, Saturday January 4, Sunday January 5
We went back to back at Cap Sauers, with the first day devoted to brush and small tree removal while the crew from Atrium Landscape worked a good distance away thinning larger trees. We had a large group on Day One which included a couple members of the FPCC Palos crew, and a smaller volunteer group on Day Two. We again had help from the Palos crew on the second day, which was terrific. Commercial fellers can take down larger trees than volunteers are certified for and some of the targets that need to come down are of that size.

These were among the coldest mornings of the season, the wrong time to discover some of your footwarmers are well past their use-by date (my bad!), but the fires and the physicality of the task were plenty adequate to keep me warm. It was a very pretty day to be outdoors, with a sky that grew more clear as the day went on.​
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Paddock December 26, Pioneer December 28, 2024: Spears January 1 2025

1/2/2025

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Paddock Woods Thursday December 26
Boxing Day special was a smaller group which included Matt and Erin from Woods to Wetlands. I came late, in time to load one of at least three fires I saw burning. This was along the Yellow Trail as it turns west towards Kean Avenue, a pretty, hilly stretch of land that borders 119th Street. We'll be back in that general area in the next few weeks for a tree-thinning cleanup - sawyers from Atrium Landscape will thin trees at several sites in Palos (thank you Kathy Bruch!), and we'll come along the next day and burn what they've cut.

Pioneer Woods Saturday December 28
Crooked Creek runs through Pioneer Woods in quite the serpentine fashion, and we worked along one bank cutting and burning honeysuckle, with two sawyers also thinning some small trees. This is a strikingly pretty area, with a high bank on the south side of the creek, which is generally placid but can rage briefly during/after a an intense rainfall.

We've been here on numerous occasions, and the land looks much better for volunteer effort. It's really beautiful when snow-covered and terrific for snowshoe trekking. 

Spears Woods Wednesday January 1
I missed this one as Julie and I were doing a tour of some of the old downtown areas along the Burlington line. We also made a brief stop at Wolf Road Prairie, took photos of the Prairie House there, and will return on a less brisk day for exploration, preferably in late summer.

We had a good group at Spears again.

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    Author

    I'm Jan Pietrzak with the Palos Restoration Project. This blog and website were created for your information and enjoyment.

    I hope you'll be encouraged and inspired to volunteer at any of the numerous forest preserves in our area.

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