Blog Posts - Palos Restoration Project

McMahon Woods & Fen August 1, 2020

8/5/2020

Saturday August 1,
Our last time at McMahon pulling white sweet clover, though the plants still present insist they'd welcome us back again. Many had gone to seed, making it important to get them into bagged without shaking it loose. Thank you Cyndi Duda for bringing your collapsible yard waste containers which expedited that process.

Our prairies are continuing to offer new treats, prairie blazing star (Liatris pychnostachya) and the early blooming goldenrods among them. Vibrant color warning!

We have several sites in Palos where these prairie plants can be viewed, some requiring a substantial hike in, others closer to the road. Contact us for more information; restorepalos@gmail.com or janaugust@sbcglobal.net or hit the 'Contact' button on the banner above.

McMahon Woods & Fen July 25, 2020

7/30/2020

Saturday July 25, McMahon Woods & Fen
Back to McMahon for another round of white sweet clover, this time sans the storm clouds that interrupted us two weeks ago. The sun shone bright on the prairie and the pollinators were abundant, as was the target plant.

We encountered a distressingly large number of smaller plants, which I doubt were detectable two weeks earlier. That's one curse of sweet clover; it grows for an extended period (flowers from July-September), so one assault is seldom sufficient. Yes, the repeated efforts seem to give a reduction in the population, but it does take that methodical work to get there.

Good to see John Marlin and Jim Tebo for the first time since March, to have Audra back, to have nearly a dozen volunteers come together on a warm July morning. Much appreciated!

The payoff is being surrounded by all these lovely native plants. Joe Pye weed and the sunflowers are blooming, and the prairie blazing stars are also kicking in. This purple beauty is yet another of my favorites, the plant that, according to Illinois Wildflowers, "resembles a fairy wand." How can one go wrong with that?

Cap Sauers July 18, 2020

7/22/2020

Cap Sauers Saturday July 18,
Had another engagement, thanking Doug Bosco, again, for his photos of the day. White sweet clover is still abundant in many places, and a small crew of die-hards braved the heat on this Saturday morning to go after some of it.

We never get it all but we don't expect to; the goal is to reduce future populations by getting rid of most of the flowers before they go to seed. We're making progress in some places, but it's like whack-a-mole. Hit it here, it pops up over there. Dang!

Two of the pictures below are of a swan family at Lake Katherine in Palos Heights. I've been watching them since mid-May, watching the babies (cygnets) get bigger. Last year's brood didn't survive, this year they're hanging on so far. It'll be maybe three months before they fly and I'll be checking in from time to time hoping to see the flying lessons. Here's a link to information on baby swans and their maturation.

McMahon Woods, July 11, 2020

7/15/2020

McMahon Woods & Fen, Saturday July 11
If it's July, there's white sweet clover on the prairie. We gathered at McMahon to pull a bit, meeting at Morill Meadow parking lot. Another sunny warm day, plenty of targets (though blessedly not as many as previous years), lots of summer blooms to admire, including Monarda (wild bergamot), yellow and purple coneflowers, rosinweed, and more.

Pollinators were feasting, with bees all over the Monarda in particular. Jean also found a couple interesting larvae and caterpillars, pictured below. Anyone with bug ID skills, please take a look.

Our luck held 'til almost 11:30, when Doug spotted storm clouds to our west. They moved in pretty quickly, chasing us to the parking lot and almost catching us. Good eye Doug!!

Hidden Pond
Tuesday I joined Mary Busch at Hidden Pond, where she planned on tackling the wild parsnip that grows along Kean Avenue. We only found a couple viable plants - thanks are in order to the Conservation Corps or another mystery herbicider, as we saw evidence of spraying in several locations.

Switching gears, we went after - what else? - white sweet clover, clearing the stretch from Christina south to Woodland Drive, though much of that was done by volunteers last time out June 28.

Palos Play Dates July 4, 2020: Ashburn Prairie

7/9/2020

Saturday July 4, Ashburn Prairie, Marquette Park
Joe went off the reservation on this day, going to Ashburn Prairie in Marquette Park, Chicago. This is a rescue/restoration Joe did many years ago, moving plugs of plants from a prairie in the Ashburn neighborhood that was being 'developed' (that's a word that sometimes can be a synonym for "destroyed") to a site in Marquette Park.

Volunteers cut gray dogwood and hawthorn that were encroaching on the prairie, on yet another in a succession of warm sunny days. Summer on the prairie is often a challenge due to the lack of shade, yet, much of the work that needs to be done in the summer is right there on those prairies.

Cap Sauers June 27, Hidden Pond June 28, 2020

7/2/2020

Cap Sauers Moraines Saturday June 27
First time out at Cap since the pandemic began and it's as lush and lovely as I remembered it. Our major target on this day was reed canary grass. We worked our way south and east along the green trail, snipping the seed heads along the way.

It's a shame we're not brush-cutting at this juncture. The multi-flora rose is in full bloom and screams its presence; you make a mental note to come and get it at a later date.

Hidden Pond Sunday June 28
More reed canary along Kean Avenue at Hidden Pond, but our major target was sweet clover, both white (Mellilotus alba) and yellow (M. officinale). They were mostly found near the sidewalk, while the reed canary was distributed more widely. Cyndi's collapsible yard waste containers were a boon, allowing us to easily deposit the 'bad guys' while limiting the dropping of seeds.

It was quite the warm and sunny morning and two hours was a good duration. We pulled a lot of weeds out in that time and felt we accomplished some good.

Spears Woods June 20, 2020

6/25/2020

Spears Woods Saturday June 20
This was my first time at Spears since the pandemic began, and it was good to be back. Our small group removed a variety of weeds, pulling butterweed and garlic mustard and snipping tops of reed canary grass as we encountered it.

For such a small group we hauled an impressive amount of weeds back to the parking lot. Much of it was the butterweed, a plant that is native to regions south of us but becomes problematic in our area. Like the catalpa tree, also historically found farther south, we may find ourselves battling this one more if we continue to see climate change. Curious to see how this plays out.

If Given Lemons...
Subtitled, good things arising out of the undeniably bad pandemic:

Filled gas tank just once since mid-March
Discovered Julie and I are probably compatible
Sleeping in - with the rationale that proper rest promotes a strong immune system
Riding bicycle more than I have in many years
More reading than in recent memory
Several weeks (long gone now) of blessedly light traffic in the neighborhood
Witnessing parents actively engaged with their kids (pretty much gone now too)
Even picked up the guitar a few times
Whittling away at the honey-do list

Willow Springs June 13, 2020

6/18/2020

Willow Springs Saturday June 13
We were again a small group, with three members carrying backpacks and spraying invasive weeds. The rest of us pulled garlic mustard and butterweed, and clipped the seed heads from reed canary grass. Great to see people I hadn't seen in many weeks.

Jim Carlson pointed out a catalpa tree, cut down two winters ago (probably January 2019), lying on the ground. In several places along its length, new growth was coming out of the bark. No roots, no way of getting nourishment from the ground, yet this tree was still fighting to stay alive. Quite impressive.

As summer arrives, both prairie and woodland are thriving, no doubt loving the abundance of rain that fell in May. There are fewer blooms in the woodland now that the spring ephemerals' time has passed, but the prairie is compensating nicely.

On a recent walk at Hidden Pond I saw numerous Ohio spiderworts and an absolute abundance of foxglove beardtongue (Penstemon digitals) in flower. Other plants spotted, not blooming yet, included two members of the Silphium genus, cup plant and prairie dock. The latter were especially numerous and should grace us with a splash of yellow later in the summer. Prairie dropseed looks like it's thriving in the lower part of the prairie.

Restoration in Palos, June 4, 2020

6/4/2020

Phase 3 Begins in the Preserves
Forest Preserves of Cook County (FPCC) released new guidance under Illinois Phase 3 last week. The good news is that volunteers are allowed to resume restoration activities in our local preserves.

There are certainly limits, which we expected. Volunteer groups can't exceed than 10 people, including the steward/leader. We won't host any organized groups under Phase 3 or solicit new volunteers. The rationale is that having experienced volunteers limits the amount of face-to-face interaction needed to get the work started.

Workdays will be private, by invitation, so dates and locations won't be listed on the FPCC website, on this website, or in our weekly email. Volunteers interested in participating can contact me via this website's contact page or by email at janaugust@sbcglobal.net I will forward their names, contact info, and day preferences (weekday, Saturday, or Sunday) to our stewards.

Volunteers are encouraged to bring their own water and snacks, so we won't create a risk of virus transmission via shared food or beverages. Tools and gloves will be handled differently, to minimize risk. Workdays will initially be three hours, our standard, but may be adjusted.

There will still be no bathroom facilities open in the preserves. We were told a couple days ago that CDC pandemic guidelines call for bathrooms to be cleaned every two hours, which is not remotely possible in a setting like a forest preserve. If you're coming to volunteer please be aware of this.

Cicada Time
Apparently we have a brood of cicadas on a 13 year cycle, or maybe they are calendar-challenged. At any rate, a week ago we started seeing them in out yard, and I now have numerous exit holes in my small vegetable garden. A couple of our visitors are pictured below.

Palos Play Dates May 28: 11 Weeks In

5/27/2020

Last Weekend's Storms
Trails in our area took a severe beating from last weekend's rain. Try as they might, and FPCC puts a lot of work into mitigation of storm damage, sudden downpours in a hilly area like Palos move so much water so fast that damage is inevitable,

The vast majority of the plants survive. The vast majority of the trees survive, though the double whammy of saturated ground and high winds will knock some of them over. Erosion of soil is a huge problem; on bare areas there are no roots to retain it. Prudent restoration work can help.

As we near the end of May, it looks like our state is moving into a new phase. Without knowing what might happen in the restoration field, it is encouraging that we're making progress. I mentioned last week that Conservation Corps crews are at work now in the preserves. Eventually the volunteer program will get back on its feet again and I/we look forward to that day.

So let's keep on being safe, throttle that impulse to sprint when a slow jog is more suitable. As someone with a few marathons under my belt, I can tell you how important it is to have something left for the finish.