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McMahon Woods March 23, Swallow Cliff March 24, 2024

3/27/2024

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McMahon Woods & Fen Saturday March 23
We had another good group of volunteers at McMahon, with two chainsaws and one brush-cutter going on one side of the work site, and the rest of us hand-cutting and burning on the other. Just on fire this time, but loaded with copious amounts of brush in the course of the morning. There's so much potential at this location, needing only a big infusion of sweat equity to turn it loose. We've been providing that for many months and it's coming along nicely.

Swallow Cliff Woods Sunday March 24
The weather held and we found a reasonably dry spot to cut and burn, away from the low, wet ground near the slough. We were joined by first-time Palos volunteers Sara, Melanie, Bridget, and Kelsey - thank you all for your great effort, and for choosing a Palos site for the morning.

The area we're clearing, by one of the Laughing Girl sloughs (soon to be renamed Muskrat Slough), is expanding both to the south and east. We may get one more session of brush-cutting in on Sunday May 26, depends on the weather from now to then and how much plant growth comes in the next four weeks.


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Cap Sauers March 16, Black Partridge March 17, 2024

3/21/2024

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Cap Sauers Holding Saturday March 16
Back to brush-cutting as we're done with major tree-thinning for the season, our group returned to Cap Sauers which retains enough invasive brush to keep us going for some time. The pictures and accounts of this day, and Sunday at Black Partridge, come from FB posts and input from Doug Bosco, Joy Vrchota, and John Marlin.

Our FPCC ecologist, Kristin Pink, came to help on this day, and again on Sunday at Black Partridge. Great to have her! 

Black Partridge Woods Sunday March 17
Our volunteers were back on the south side of Bluff Road, removing the big, hearty honeysuckle from the past dairy farm portion of the site. This is relatively flat ground, not far from the Des Plaines River. where cattle once grazed.

We were joined by Javy and five other first-time Palos volunteers from Latino Outdoors Great Lakes as well as a solid complement of regulars, and got another good section cleared by quitting time.
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March 13th, 2024

3/13/2024

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Spears Woods Saturday march 9
Your correspondent was on assignment elsewhere, so this post comes from the good graces of Jim Dzialowy, and Joe Connolly, as well as FB posts by Doug Bosco and Joy Vrchota.

​Pretty certain this was the last of our Atrium clean-up days for the season, where we burn logs left by the tree-thinning crew of Atrium Landscape. This one was notable for an exceedingly muddy worksite after rain that lasted most of Friday. I'm told they wallowed a bit and pulled their boots out of the muck repeatedly, getting upper and lower-body workouts simultaneously.

They also managed to burn six big brush piles, a creditable achievement any day, better still with the conditions they faced. 

Hidden Pond Woods Sunday March 10
Back to our wooded slope, a scrappy area situated above the prairie at Hidden Pond. We continue to push our way north and east, creating a sightline from our position near LaGrange Road, down to the prairie and across to Kean Avenue. Conversely, one can now stand on the sidewalk at Kean and look west, up the hill to La Grange Road. Several years ago this was not possible, a sign our continued effort is bearing fruit.

We had a single brush pile and kept it loaded throughout the morning. Special thanks to Teri Radke of FPCC for leading, and to Audra Gray, whom we drafted as brush pile burn boss for the morning. Teri also took three from the group (Dan, Audra, and Julie) to the prairie to distribute native seed collected last fall. 
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Spears Woods Saturday March 2

3/7/2024

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Spears Woods Saturday March 2
We had a decent number of volunteers out, including several coming early, to burn log piles on two sides of a small pond not far from Old Country Lane at Spears. The fires were a delight to start and burned with no trouble at all.
We're nearing the end of tree-thinning season now, with at least a couple more sessions of cleanup from the good work done by sawyers of Atrium Landscape. Then we shall continue brush-cutting, probably through the end of April, before moving on to garlic mustard and summer weeds.

Our restoration Sunday at McClaughrey Springs was canceled due to beyond-brisk winds.

Bizarre Weather Pattern Volume, again
In the space of seven days recently, we had four with no brush pile burning allowed, due to high winds with a couple days of low humidity and one bona-fide Red Flag warning. No wailing or wringing of hands here; we'll get whatever needs to be done on another day, and when your activity is outdoors you expect weather interruptions.

The greater concern is weather patterns that continue in this vein and their impact on local habitat. In last week's Play Dates we shared a link about the effect of warm winter days in hastening the emergence of insects and amphibians, and the domino effect on other species farther up the food chain. Over the longer term we can expect changes in flora, some of which we're seeing already with migration of trees commonly found farther south.
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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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