Willow Springs Woods Saturday August 26
By Saturday the heat wave had moved on, making both our weekend outings much more enjoyable. This was another weed day, with some volunteers carrying backpack sprayers and others hand-pulling sweet clover or clipping flowers from invasives like thistle and teasel.
Shout-out to new volunteer Thomas, who first joined us a week ago at Cap Sauers and came back last week at Willow Springs. Much appreciated.
Swallow Cliff Woods South, Sunday August 27
Our first seed collecting day of the season, Sunday was delightfully cool. We were mostly confined to woodland grasses, bottlebrush, brome, and a bit of rye being the prime species that were ready. Numerous others, not ripe yet, will be targeted on another day.
We were joined by first time Palos volunteer Holli, as well as FPCC's Kris DaPra, who graciously consented to add her expertise (and knowledge of Swallow Cliff) to our endeavor. One piece of good news: Kris, who worked on a Forest Preserves restoration crew at Swallow Cliff some 25 years ago, views the current diversity of plants in the managed area as outstanding.
Another piece of good news: in our recent brush-clearing area, started last September, we found an abundance of native plants moving in where honeysuckle once dominated. This included some interesting wetland plants as well as more common succession plants, which should limit invasive growth before yielding to other native species.
By Saturday the heat wave had moved on, making both our weekend outings much more enjoyable. This was another weed day, with some volunteers carrying backpack sprayers and others hand-pulling sweet clover or clipping flowers from invasives like thistle and teasel.
Shout-out to new volunteer Thomas, who first joined us a week ago at Cap Sauers and came back last week at Willow Springs. Much appreciated.
Swallow Cliff Woods South, Sunday August 27
Our first seed collecting day of the season, Sunday was delightfully cool. We were mostly confined to woodland grasses, bottlebrush, brome, and a bit of rye being the prime species that were ready. Numerous others, not ripe yet, will be targeted on another day.
We were joined by first time Palos volunteer Holli, as well as FPCC's Kris DaPra, who graciously consented to add her expertise (and knowledge of Swallow Cliff) to our endeavor. One piece of good news: Kris, who worked on a Forest Preserves restoration crew at Swallow Cliff some 25 years ago, views the current diversity of plants in the managed area as outstanding.
Another piece of good news: in our recent brush-clearing area, started last September, we found an abundance of native plants moving in where honeysuckle once dominated. This included some interesting wetland plants as well as more common succession plants, which should limit invasive growth before yielding to other native species.
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