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Willow Springs October 20, Black Partridge October 21, 2018

10/24/2018

Willow Springs Woods Saturday October 20
Volunteer Mike Kazaitis's birthday was coming so daughters Jennifer and Allison asked how he wanted to celebrate. Mike replied "Go to the woods" and brought both daughters, with husband and boyfriend, respectively, to help us at Willow Springs. Happy Birthday, Mike, and thanks for the gesture of support!

We also had 19 volunteers from the TEENS program at Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum and numerous others, a total of over 40. Good news for us, bad news for honeysuckle. We opened a large area along both sides of a creek running through the site.

Super day, thanks to all who attended!

Black Partridge Woods Sunday October 21
Hard to top the preceding day, but we did our best, with a team of 11 working near the old farm house site at Partridge, including several students and parents from Whitney Young HS.

Kathy Bruch led most of the group on a hunt for invasive stragglers, then brought them back to the brush pile site where we hauled and burned an accumulation of brush from a pair of earlier days. It was a great team effort and we got all the old cuttings on the fire.

Congratulations to Ginger Rubinstein who is officially a Stewardship Workday Leader with Forest Preserves of Cook County, and will lead volunteer restoration days at Swallow Cliff Woods. The next one is this Sunday, October 28 at 9 am - click the schedule tab on this website for details.

Congrats also to Andrew Meyer who did two observations for the Forest Preserves' Managing Invasives class last weekend.

There are numerous free classes available to volunteers through the Forest Preserves, a terrific way to expand your own base of knowledge while giving you another way to support our efforts. Click the following link to view the variety of classes offered.
ec.samaritan.com/recruiter/index.php?class=OppSearchResults&recruiterID=1405&urgency=590,520

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Willow Springs October 13, Hidden Pond & Cap Sauers October 14, 2018

10/15/2018

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Willow Springs Woods Saturday October 13
One group took a walking tour of Willow while other volunteers cut and burned honeysuckle near the parking lot. The walkers (several of them students from Whitney Young, plus parents, and Willow Springs resident Jeff) came back to the lot and spent their final hour helping cut. It was a terrific turnout and we got a big chunk of land cleared of invasives. Thanks to all who helped!

Hidden Pond Woods Sunday October 14
Brian Sievers of Shepard HS in Palos Heights brought ~20 students to Hidden Pond, where we continued to clear brush along the southwest edge of the prairie. We also burned off an accumulation of cut brush from prior sessions.

In addition to this great crew from Shepard, we were blessed by the presence of Landon and Niah from Oak Lawn HS, Leslie (and mom) from Whitney Young, Jean, Kathy, Andrew, and steward Mary Busch!

Cap Sauers Holding Sunday October 14
Bob had another good group at his site Sunday afternoon, 11 volunteers total including Kathy Bruch who doubled up am & pm.

'Tis the season for brushcutting and they hit a bunch of honeysuckles in their afternoon session.

McClaughrey Springs Wednesday October 17
Diana hosted 30 Curie HS students, part of her ongoing partnership with the school. They break up into small groups and rotate through chemistry, biology, physics, and restoration tasks. They were a delightful group who worked well, and Manny is a bow saw rock star.

Nature Walk With a Librarian, Black Partridge, October 18
We had a small group and a fine time, walking along the creek at Black Partridge. At the onset we saw FPCC ecologist Kristin Pink busily tagging native shrubs in the low area near the creek. Kristin is a terrific partner, as is Jessica Rock from Palos Park Public Library. Always a pleasure hanging out with Jessica and library patrons.
The final walk of 2018 will be at Swallow Cliff Woods South on Thursday November 15. Join us if you can.

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Rainy Days in Palos

10/11/2018

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Rainy Saturday
We had only one scheduled restoration day last weekend, and that was canceled due to rain and soggy groud. We DID have a handful of people at Hidden Pond, clearing some hazard trees from a work site where 24 students from Shepard High School in Palos Heights will volunteer Sunday October 14.

Thanks to Dennis Kankowske and John Plunkett for coming, with chainsaws, to knock down these troublesome trees. Thanks to Doug Bosco for coming on short notice, to help haul and burn said trees, and to steward Mary Busch for organizing and leading the work.

Oaks and Brews Thursday October 4
This was a public talk at Imperial Oak Brewing in Willow Springs. My thanks to all who listened as we extolled the virtues of volunteering in the preserves, and to all who came to support the event.

Little Red Schoolhouse Arts and Crafts Fair, Sunday October 7
Carolyn, Kathy, and Ginger all helped promote our activities with shoppers at this fair and we had some good conversations and encouraging words of support for our activities. I've tabled here for a number of years now this was a good day.

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Willow Springs Woods Sept. 29, McClaughrey Springs Sept. 30, 2018

10/3/2018

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Willow Springs Woods Saturday September 29
Normally we're here around Halloween, across from the cemetery in the 'haunted woods' of Willow West. This year we arrived early and a bit ahead of fall colors. Super turnout, with first-time Palos volunteers Cassi, James, and Mike, a visit from long-time volunteer and friend Ken Schroeder, and a host of energetic volunteers.

Many honeysuckles met their demise by saw and lopper, a number of maples were thinned, and three big fires took care of all that we cut.

McClaughrey Springs Woods Sunday September 30
We had a great crew Sunday as well, working near the Yellow Trail's northeastern section. Devin and Carrie got one fire going, Jean the other, and everyone pitched in cutting and dragging brush. A lot of cut honeysuckle on the ground from Diana's last workday,four weeks ago, got collected and burned too.

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Willow Springs October 20, Black Partridge October 21, 2018

Willow Springs October 13, Hidden Pond & Cap Sauers October 14, 2018

Rainy Days in Palos

Willow Springs Woods Sept. 29, McClaughrey Springs Sept. 30, 2018

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