Chicago EXPLORING NATURE & CULTURE

WSUMIMLERD 19E98 RNES S

GEMS OF THE BUG WORLD • P RAIRIES : B ORN TO BURN What is Chicago Wilderness?

Chicago Wilderness is some of the finest and most signifi - cant nature in the temperate world, with roughly 200,000 acres of protected natural lands harboring native plant and animal communities that are more rare—and their survival more globally threatened—than the tropical rain forests.

CHICAGO WILDERNESS is an unprecedented alliance of more than 60 public and private organizations working together to study and restore, protect and manage the precious natural resources of the Chicago region for the benefit of the public.

Chicago WILDERNES S is a new quarterly magazine that seeks to articulate a vision of regional identity linked to nature and our natural heritage, to celebrate and promote the rich nat - ural areas of this region, and to inform readers about the work of the many organizations engaged in collaborative conservation. CHICAGO WILDERNESS A Regional Nature Reserve

Native Prairie Twilight or Dawn?

o many of our neighbors, prairies seem foreign and unat - in this region worked to save the remaining parcels—not by Ttractive, second cousin to the trash-filled vacant lot. erecting a fence and staying out, but by tending to the land Typically, we’re uncomfortable and making amends. This meant with what we don’t know. As re-introducing natural processes Verie Sandborg notes in her such as controlled fire; restoring essay on page 30, one could some of the original hydrology, easily be a native of these parts and bringing back species—plants, and never have encountered butterflies, mammals, turtles— what was once the dominant whose populations had been landscape of this region. The severely threatened. Midwest’s sea of grass—a rich Now rarities such as Cooper’s mosaic of prairies, oak woods, hawks and the prairie white- and marshes—was virtually fringed orchids are reappearing eradicated within the span of a through the caring intervention single human lifetime. Today, of human stewards. Restoration less than one-hundredth of one has taught us that people have an percent of high-quality native essential role to play in the future prairie remains. of nature, that we can think

O Because there is so little left, beyond being users, or abusers, of P P

O it’s not easy to know the nature. We can, in fact, become S I

T prairie, and thus not easy to stewards of our natural communi - E :

M love it. We grew up with gor - ties. Thousands of people i c h geous images of Yellowstone, throughout the region are now i g a the Grand Canyon, and working at hundreds of sites to n l i Yosemite splayed before us. learn about and restore the best of l y

t This was Nature resplendent, what survives of our original land - h r i v true Nature fine and pure—or scape. The stewards will tell you e s

i so we were told. No one told that our native prairies, open n

P m us about the prairies. h woods, and wetlands are beautiful o t o o i : s

But it was in the prairies C and subtle, bold and surprising; t a

s e p y r that modern humanity would that the journey of discovery is G a a i l v r i i

learn a shocking secret about n joyful and profound—and often e s

a nature. Leaving nature alone totally fun. n d

isn’t enough. Leave prairie alone, and we lose it. But don’t listen to these people. Get out in the wilds and o p

e Thus, by necessity, prairies became the places where see for yourself. Look nature in the eye. Lend a hand if you n

w humans began to develop a new interrelationship with want to. Enter the Discovery Zone. Become a native in our o o

d nature. Alarmed at the loss of their native landscape, people native land. s .

P h o t o b y

J Debra Shore o s e p EDITOR h

K a y n e .

S UMMER 1998

CONTENTS P h o t o :

F r

FEATURES a n k

4 O b e r l BORN TO BURN by Alex Blumberg ...... 4 e Its landscape flattened by violent glaciers—molded by fire for millions of years—the tallgrass prairie teeters on the edge of extinction. People have been scourge to nature; now only people can save it. GEMS OF THE BUG WORLD by Jill Riddell ...... 10

Ecologists find butterflies to be great barometers of ecosystem quality. P h o t o

“Citizen scientists” bring home the data. :

R o b

C u r t i s / T h e

E a

D E PA RTMENTS r l y

B

10 i r d e Into the Wild ...... 13 r Our guide to the best natural areas of the region. In this issue discover five first-rate prairies—famous and little known—plus listings of prairie work parties. Natural Events Calendar ...... 20 What’s debuting on nature’s stage this season, with tips for where to see, hear, and find Chicago Wilderness. P

The Prairie Shopping Mall ...... 21 h o t o

Native American and pioneer consumers found everything they needed :

K a r e

on the prairie. n

E

22 n g s t r o

Meet Your Neighbors ...... 22 m Meet the red bat and elegant prairie walkingstick. Meet the Hoffman Dam River Rats and Ray Schulenberg, the Morton Arboretum’s pioneer of prairie restoration. Chicago News from Chicago Wilderness ...... 26 WILDERNES S EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: Guest Essay ...... 30 Barbara Whitney Carr, Chicago Botanic Garden Encountering a Prairie, by Verie Sandborg. This Midwestern native Laura Gates, Field Museum describes encountering her first prairie in her fifties—and how it Dan Griffin, Forest Preserve District of DuPage County changed her life. George Rabb, Brookfield Zoo EDITOR ...... Debra Shore Reading Pictures ...... 32 SENIOR EDITOR ...... Stephen Packard Stroking. ASSISTANT EDITORS ...... Sheryl De Vore ...... Chris Howes

PHOTO EDITOR ...... Karen Engstrom EDITORIAL CONSULTANT ...... Bill Aldrich DESIGN ...... Creative Graphic Solutions ART DIRECTOR ...... Liita Forsyth Chicago WILDERNESS is published quarterly. Subscriptions are $12/yr. Please address all subscription correspondence to Chicago WILDERNESS , P.O. Box 268, Downers Grove, IL 60515-0268. Please direct editorial inquiries and correspondence to Editor, Chicago WILDERNESS , 9232 Avers Ave, Evanston, IL 60203. (847) 677-2470. e-mail: [email protected] Unsolicited manuscripts cannot be returned without a self-addressed COVER PHOTO : Sitting on a purple coneflower, stamped envelope. Chicago WILDERNESS is printed on an Aphrodite fritillary encounters photographer Karen Engstrom recycled paper and should be passed around from friend to at Gensburg-Markham Prairie.(Can you find the caterpillar?) friend. Chicago WILDERNESS is endorsed by the Chicago Region Biodiversity Council. The opinions expressed in OPPOSITE: Butterflyweed explodes from the freshly burned these pages, however, are the authors’ own. © by Chicago Belmont Prairie in Downers Grove. Photo by Joseph Kayne. Wilderness Magazine , Inc. ISSN 1097-8917. Postmaster, address service requested to AT RIGHT: The upland sandpiper needs big grasslands. Chicago WILDERNESS , PO Box 268, Downers Grove, IL Photo by Rob Curtis. 60515-0268. All rights reserved.

S UMMER 1998 3 Born to Burn by Alex Blumberg P h o t o :

J o s e p h

K a y n e

or most of the last few thousand years, two what the plucky Smith came up with: seas converged on the spot where Chicago “An ocean of prairie surrounds the spectator whose F now stands. One was blue, the other green. vision is not limited to less than 30 or 40 miles. This The blue sea, Lake Michigan, still pounds great sea of verdure is interspersed with delightfully against the shore as it always has. But of the varying undulations, like the vast waves of the ocean.” green one, the prairie, little remains. To see it as it once It must have been a stunning landscape to produce was, we have only the accounts of awestruck settlers. such breathless and ineffectual description. The irony is “The view beggars all description,” confessed W.R. that the same settlers who preserved it for posterity in Smith, traveling through the Wisconsin prairie circa their journals plowed and grazed it nearly to oblivion. 1835. Smith was not alone in his opinion. The prairie Tallgrass prairie once covered 60 percent of Illinois. confounded every 19th century diarist, letter writer, and Today, less than one-tenth of one percent of the land - scribe who sought to render its grandeur in prose. Here’s scape fits that description.

4 C HICAGO W ILDERNESS At Belmont Prairie (photo above), the rare scurfy pea blooms along with pale purple coneflower, wild quinine, New Jersey tea, black-eyed susan, and others. Learn about scurfy pea and an even rarer walkingstick on page 25. How Prairies Evolved Fire ountains trap weather. They catch the prevailing n the rain shadow, dry winds and cyclic drought turn Mwind and bind it into clouds, corral those clouds, and Igrassland to tinder, making wildfires sparked by electrical fatten them until they rain. To the lands leeward, moun - storms a frequent occurrence. By locating their buds under - tains serve as a giant dehumidifier, draining the air of all ground, where they are insulated from the flames, the its moisture before letting it pass. They cast what is called prairie plants evolved to withstand these semi-regular a rain shadow. Around 20 million years ago, give or take torchings. an eon, the two tectonic plates that met along the western But calling the prairie fire-adapted is like calling human half of North America collided, crumpling what had been beings oxygen-adapted. It’s not that the prairie survives in a relatively smooth section of a relatively smooth conti - spite of fire. The prairie needs fire to survive. Fire keeps the nent into the jagged wreckage of the Rocky Mountains. prairie free of faster-growing, sun-stealing weeds less tol - It was in the rain shadow of the Rockies, five to seven mil - erant of immolation. Fire clears the prairie of brush and lion years ago, that the North American prairie probably allows sunlight to penetrate to the young grasses and began to evolve. flowers below. In years without fire, excess organic matter Conditions are tough in the rain shadow. It’s dry. accumulates, plant populations decline, and the prairie Temperatures regularly top 90 °F in summer and drop below slowly chokes on its own detritus. But after a fire, the zero in winter. Then there’s the ungulate problem. The prairie produces twice as much biomass as it did the pre - appearance in the fossil record of long-legged beasts with vious year. high-crowned teeth good for grinding vegetation coincides In other ecosystems, plants’ parts decay rapidly, leaving with the appearance of the first prairie plants. That’s the little behind to fuel a fire. Maple leaves, for example, melt thing about natural selection. As soon as you come on the quickly into the forest floor soon after falling. Prairie scene, something else evolves to eat you. plants, by contrast, might as well cover themselves with The plants of the prairie, under the ruthless guidance of dried newspaper every autumn. Their stalks persist—brittle, natural selection, adapted to these new conditions. They stiff, and highly combustible—for seasons on end. The developed ingenious techniques to convert as much of the grassland was made to burn. On flat land, in almost any cli - sun’s light into energy as was possible without simultane - mate conducive to periodic wildfires, it flourishes. ously overheating. These included growing their leaves The prairie was a huge place and species varied widely small and thin to maximize both surface area and the wind’s depending on soil conditions, drainage, temperature, and convection-cooling effects, blanketing them with hairy rainfall. Even within a one-acre plot, conditions could shift spindles to diffuse the sun’s rays, or coating them in waxy from wetland fen to dry gravel prairie. Generally, though,

Calling the prairie fire-adapted is like calling human beings oxygen-adapted. The prairie needs fire to survive. d r a k c a P n e h p e t S

: o t o h P the entire prairie biome can be divided into three distinct Riverside Prairie in the Cook County Forest Preserves in 1986. In regions—shortgrass prairies to the west, tallgrass prairies to 1907 Riverside Prairie was as rich as Belmont Prairie is today the east, and mixed grass prairies where they overlap. (opposite page). For decades, scientists didn’t understand why Shortgrass prairies, which dominate from the base of the the brush was killing the prairie. Rockies to central Nebraska, consist of plants a foot or less in height and requiring less than 20 inches of precipitation residue to prevent water loss. a year. Further east, the rain shadow starts to blur, precipi - Most prairie grasses use a distinctive chemical pathway tation increases, and the tallgrass prairie rules. that allows them to photosynthesize quickly and use water The tallgrass prairie incorporates species from the short - efficiently at high temperatures. And the roots of many grass prairies to the west, but also drought and fire-adapted prairie plants burrow deep into the ground, some as far as species that evolved on the dunes, plains, and oak or pine 20 feet. This serves the dual purpose of storing water and savannas of the Atlantic seaboard. This mix, combined nutrients during drought seasons and facilitating regrowth with higher precipitation levels, produces taller plants, after grazing. But desert grasslands would have turned to some up to six or eight feet in height. scrub and tallgrass become forest except for one lively char - But higher precipitation also favors non-grassland ecosys - acteristic of this planet: lightning starts fires. tems. While the western edge of the shortgrass prairie has

S UMMER 1998 5 e

held stable at the Rockies for millions of years, the eastern wind, wild onions droop petaled globes, and compass l r e b O

edge of the tallgrass prairie has surged and receded in a plants align their fan-like leaves to face the sun. A 1947 k n a r

constant battle with the hardwood forests across the photograph from the same vantage point shows a dif - F

y b

e

Mississippi River. Ice ages, periods of warming and cooling, ferent landscape: a field mottled with hawthorn thickets. i r i a r P

pre cipitation, and drought all contribute to the boundary’s The journey from the photograph of 1907 to the photo - m a h

continuous redrawing. Most scientists agree that our current graph of 1947—from primeval wilderness to young k r a M

prairie arrived in Illinois about 8,000 years ago, when a brushland—is chronicled in a small paper published in / g r u b period of dry, hot weather called the hypsothermic interval 1959 in the American Midland Naturalist . It’s titled “The s n e G

:

probably gave the prairie the edge it needed to roll east, Disappearance of an Area of Prairie in the Cook County, o t o h P

forming “the prairie peninsula” through most of Illinois, Illinois, Forest Preserve District.” : p o and parts of Wisconsin, Indiana, and even Ohio. What was surprising about the disappearance of this field, T According to Dr. Roger Anderson, a biologist at Illinois called the Riverside Prairie, was that it was not sacrificed on State University, “[M]ost ecologists believe that prairie any of the typical altars: cropland, cow pasture, or strip vegetation in the eastern United States would have largely mall. In their quest to find out why it still died, the authors disappeared during the past 5,000 years had it not been for of the paper, the eminent ecologist Victor E. Shelford and the nearly annual burning of the prairies by the North his colleague G.S. Winterringer, demonstrate how in the face of thunderous and widespread human impact on the environment, doing nothing to the land can be just as destructive as covering it with parking lot. One would think the prairie’s demise would have started in 1870. Humans have played both steward and Developers that year gouged a wide, arching corridor of dirt out of the prairie’s eastern half, the beginning of what scourge to the prairie. This ancient they dreamed would be a tree-lined street in a wealthy resi - ecosystem’s survival into the 21st century dential neighborhood. But when the development scheme tanked at the collapse of the Chicago real estate market, requires our mastering a new role—savior. the prairie surged back to reclaim the bare earth. By the time the spot was photographed in 1907, only the slightest grade in the land gave any hint the prairie ever suffered disturbance. American Indians and the prairie fires set by lightning.” The prairie’s downfall came later, but not when the Early settler accounts describe Native Americans using fire authors say it did. They trace its decline back to 1926, to hunt bison. Other experts theorize that pre-settlement when a particularly bad year for mosquitoes provoked an peoples ignited the prairie with the less direct goal of unfocused but intensive abatement program. The authors resource management. Grazers such as elk, deer, and bison describe one of the measures taken this way: “[O]n or prefer newly burned prairie. Perhaps tribes in the region before 1934 the mosquito abaters made a ditch about two burned to maintain the productivity of their hunting feet deep east of the shoulder of the First Avenue pave - grounds. ment.” “Mosquito abaters” and their ilk continued to work, Humans have played both steward and scourge to the digging more ditches, paving roads, constructing a reten - prairie. This ancient ecosystem’s survival into the 21st cen - tion pond. Although the prairie itself was not touched, tury requires our mastering a new role—savior. cumulatively the modifications wrought profound changes on the area’s hydrological dynamics. The scientists’ conclu - A Prairie Dies sion: “The invasion of the prairie by scattered trees and here’s a photograph, taken in 1907, of a meadow east shrubs was without doubt largely due to a general lowering Tof where Brookfield Zoo now stands, in Cook of the water table and weakening of the grasses.” County, Illinois. Bluestem and June grass bow in the In identifying hydrological tampering as the principal

6 C HICAGO W ILDERNESS The average square yard of ancient prairie contains 20 to 30 species of rare native plants. culprit, the authors picked the wrong guy from the line-up. generally acquired land in its pristine state. Many years of research later, any expert will confirm that A young Ph.D. candidate by the name of Robert Betz prairie flourishes in a wide range of soil moistures, but to gave Santa Fe its second break. He was led there by the survive it must burn regularly. legendary plant taxonomist Floyd Swink, who had discov - This dependence on fire is a challenge for conserva - ered the Santa Fe Prairie in 1946. Betz would later become tionists. What do Americans think of fire? It burns down “Mr. Prairie,” and his visit in 1959 as part of a field trip ini - houses and scorches lawns. If consumed by flames, tiated the prairie restoration movement much as the apple humans and our belongings don’t sprout anew in spring. falling on Newton’s head gave birth to the science of Much of what people construct on the landscape—roads, physics. irrigation ditches, bluegrass lawns, and fire departments— “I’d grown up in Bridgeport in Chicago, playing on intentionally or accidentally retards the progress of flame vacant lots that we called prairies,” says Betz, now a retired across field. Thus modern humans deprived the prairie of professor of biology, “but when I got to Santa Fe and saw an element critical to its survival. Today, scientists realize, what an actual prairie was, why, I guess you could say I got had the forest preserve managers simply set fire to the prairie fever.” Betz continued his official career in molec - Riverside Prairie once every couple of years, they could ular biology, but put most of his spirit in a parallel have saved it. volunteer career. He developed an apostle’s passion for But this prairie was not saved. Today it’s a thick tangle of locating and restoring prairie remnants throughout the European buckthorn, an inverted distortion of the diversity Midwest. In the mid-1960s, when BNSF considered cov - there before, and a lesson that we as a species persist in not ering the prairie with fill from the newly constructed I-55, learning: even in a “hands-off” forest preserve our actions Betz intervened. His appeals eventually persuaded the rail - have consequences beyond what we can see. road not to develop the land. Fast forward 20 years to Stan Johnson, a semi-retired Saving a Jewel research chemist at Argonne National Laboratories by day, anta Fe Drive runs through an industrial park at the executive director and chairman of the Illinois & Michigan Sconfluence of I-55 and I-294 near Hodgkins in south - Canal National Heritage Corridor Civic Center Authority western Cook County. Vehicles that can’t be operated with (CCA) in his spare time. Johnson had heard about the a standard drivers license rumble up and down its length. Santa Fe Prairie, understood that it fell within CCA’s juris - Football-field-sized hangars with names like Petrovend diction, but knew no one with first-hand knowledge of it. Chemical, Sealed Air Corporation, and Wonder Bread line “In 1989,” he says, “I went to a natural areas stewardship its sides. conference at Moraine Valley Community College But there are other sights along Santa Fe Drive. Between expecting to find the people representing the prairie. I kept the gravel berm of the Burlington Northern/Santa Fe asking around, but there was no group associated with it.” (BNSF) train tracks and the frontage road along the Des Johnson volunteered his organization to coordinate Plaines River lurks one of the last virgin wildernesses in advocacy efforts for the prairie, and some weeks later, Illinois, the Santa Fe Prairie. accompanied by several stalwarts of the prairie restoration The 1979 Illinois Natural Areas Inventory (INAI) iden - movement, he visited the site. “We were horrified to find tified this 10.8-acre site as grade A mesic and dry mesic that a giant oval track for off-road vehicle races had been gravel prairie. This means it’s a pristine prairie growing on carved in the middle of the prairie,” Johnson recalls. gravelly, moderately wet soil. The INAI originally identi - Following a certain amount of negotiation, the railroad fied three prairies of this type. One has since disappeared generously granted volunteers permission to begin man - beneath the wheels of progress. Santa Fe is the largest of aging the land. The volunteers blocked vehicle access, put the remaining two in Illinois, perhaps in the world. up signs, and began the process of restoring the degraded The Santa Fe Prairie survived initially by belonging to areas. Johnson started writing inch-thick grants, wading the Santa Fe Railroad. Railroad rights-of-way are typical through multilevel corporate and governmental bureaucra - places for prairies to survive. The first railroad companies cies, and traveling down numerous dead ends. After a

S UMMER 1998 7 decade of Johnson’s hard work, a relatively intact Santa Fe Prairie finally concluded its passage from post-glacial land - scape to 21st century wilderness haven when BNSF donated the land to the CCA. On June 16, 1998, a cere - mony commemorated the site’s official dedication as an Illinois Nature Preserve, a legal status that should guar - antee its survival in perpetuity. Why does it deserve such a status? According to Karen Stasky, one of Santa Fe’s volun - teer stewards, because it’s “the Midwest’s equivalent to a patch of rain forest.” Santa Fe harbors more than 250 plant species, including lilies, orchids, coneflowers, and wild grasses, most of which won’t grow anywhere but high- quality prairie. Amid the loading docks and asphalt lots, the prairie persists much as it has for centuries, perhaps

millennia. e t i h W

. . L

y r r

Prophet of the Prairie a B

:

r. Robert Betz says every o t o h p

Dsentence as if it has a time s s a r g

limit. If the common name of m e t

the plant he’s describing doesn’t s e u l b come to him, he’ll use the sci - g i entific name instead. When he B r e

z talks excitedly about something, n a P

n which is pretty much all the vegetation amid a patchwork sea of European and native o R

:

o time, he suggests a priest chal - cultivars like corn and wheat. Even if these unplowed t o h P lenging the record for fastest cemeteries were overrun with weeds, the original vegetation Latin mass. It’s the verbal quirk of a man always trying to hid out. One or two good burnings, a bit of strategic do more than he can in the time allotted, and the biggest weeding, and the exotics faded out, the native species project he’s been working on for the last 20 years is no resurged. “The prairie was there, you see,” Betz explains. exception. On 1,000 acres of cropland turned research “You just had to give it room to come back.” He traveled facility at the Enrico Fermi National Laboratory in Batavia, the state convincing local cemetery boards to let him light Illinois, Betz seeks to create in one lifetime something fire to old cemeteries, sprouting one- and two-acre pieces of nature took eons to assemble—a Midwestern tallgrass prairie in his wake. prairie. But one- and two-acre patches scattered among the corn For years, Betz had practiced a particular form of prairie fields do not an ecosystem make. The larger the prairie restoration called remnant restoration. He searched the parcel, the greater diversity of fauna it can support. At the back roads and train tracks of Illinois, Indiana, and moment, not one high-quality black-soil prairie remnant Missouri for pieces of the landscape that somehow escaped exists in Illinois large enough to support a single pair of two centuries worth of plowing, so-called “prairie rem - prairie birds. Betz dreamed of a restoration that could one nants.” He often discovered them lurking in old settler day sustain a small herd of bison. He persuaded Fermilab to cemeteries never planted with crops—tiny islands of native lend its grounds to his vision. Since the Fermilab grounds had been previously farmed, The eastern meadowlark today depends on grasslands the techniques of remnant restoration would not work there. managed by people. Betz and his volunteers would have to attempt a plowed- ground restoration. The difference between the two types of restoration is the difference between healing the sick and bringing the dead back to life. How do you grow an ecosystem from scratch? First, vol - unteers gathered seed from every prairie remnant in the area. After sowing them in the fall, Betz and crew returned in th e spring to find, as he says in mock horror, “a whole field of weeds.” Specifically ragweed, amaranth, witch grass—the same exotic and native opportunists you’ll find on every abandoned lot in Chicago. But hidden throughout, s e c r

u like grains of rice in a shag carpet, poked minute seedlings of o s e R

t the big bluestem, Indian grass, prairie dock, and other o o R

/ species the volunteers had actually planted. “I knew that n n y l F

these plants held a long-term ecological advantage,” remem - m i J

: bers Betz, “and would eventually push out the weeds.” By o t o

h the third year the balance had shifted, and that fall there P

8 C HICAGO W ILDERNESS Size matters to prairie birds: most prairie birds need a site in excess of 50 acres to raise a family. isms—bacteria, fungi, and their ilk—on which certain stage-two and three prairie plants seem to depend. In earth that was never plowed or grazed, these organisms still teem much as they have for millennia. In earth below cropland, pasture, or pavement, however, they’re largely absent. These organisms appear to form symbiotic relationships with the more conservative prairie species—the lilies, gen - tians, and clovers from Betz’s litany. These relationships seem to boost the plants’ ability to carve out territory from the more ecologically tolerant matrix species, although no one can really say why or how. The soil below Fermilab is devoid of these crucial fungi and putting them back is much harder than making them go away. Still, Bob Betz isn’t panicking, so neither should you. In the world of prairie restoration, where success is measured by the quarter acre, the Fermilab prairie is nothing short of a miracle. In 1974, Betz sowed his first 10-acre plot with prairie seed. Today, more than 1,000 acres rest beneath a swaying carpet of native grasses and wildflowers. A dedi - cated group of Fermilab groundspeople and volunteers manage the land carefully, conducting prescribed burns and quashing invasion by exotic weeds. Betz points out that “the soil folks [scientists from Argonne National Laboratory] have finally gotten together with the prairie was enough dried material to support a burn. “That’s when people,” in a collaboration he’s certain will reveal new things really took off,” Betz recalls. ways to improve and accelerate the restoration process. Based on his experience in degraded corners of the ceme - And the species count grows every year. Betz projects the tery prairies, Betz predicted the prairie would return to confidence of a man who, eventually, solves every problem Fermilab in three stages. The first stage consists of what he he faces. Sure, remaking an annihilated ecosystem is a task called “matrix species,” those prairie plants with wider eco - similar to what faced a certain king, when a fabled egg took logical tolerances, able to compete with nonnative weeds a great fall. But one suspects that if Bob Betz had been there and shrubs on plowed and open ground. The 20-odd matrix at that wall, Humpty would by now be together again.

plants include prairie dock, big bluestem, Indian grass, and B r o w wild quinine to name just a few. Once the matrix estab - n

d a r lishes itself, more conservative species like rattlesnake n e r

d r master and prairie dropseed begin to appear amid the orig - a g o n f inal mix. The third stage prairie most closely resembles the l y

p h presettlement landscape: an intricate jumble of 100 to 150 o t o :

B

different species. Betz recites the names of the third stage a r r y plants—“the gentians, the lilies, prairie clovers, Mead’s L . .

W milkweed”—in a reverent litany, the way a child might h i t describe the things she wants most for Christmas. e The poignancy is enhanced by the fact that Christmas still has not come to Fermilab. If one throws seed of a stage-three species like white prairie clover ( Petalostemum candidum ) into a degraded remnant prairie, within five to 10 years, Betz explains, “you get them blooming in flocks.” But after nearly 25 years, not one stage-three plant has propagated on its own at Fermilab. The few that grew from the original sowing will stay alive and scatter their seed year after year, but they don’t spread; they don’t penetrate P h into the system. Betz’s high-quality remnant restorations, o t o : like the Markham Prairie in southern Cook County, now D o u g

bloom throughout the summer in successive waves of con - S h e r m

servative stage-three flowers. At Fermilab, he concedes, “the a

Fringed gentian n best plots, the very first plots that we planted, are still only 40 percent of the way there.” Betz proposes an explanation cautiously, affecting a scientific restraint at odds with his Alex Blumberg works as a freelance print and radio journalist ebullient manner, “It would appear that it has to do with the in Chicago. His work has appeared in the Chicago Reader , mycorrhizae.” The Seattle Weekly , and on the national public radio Mychorrizal fungi typify a category of microscopic organ - program, This American Life .

S UMMER 1998 9 Gems of the

Bug World by Jill Riddell

Tiger swallowtail

ontrary to what many conservationists have C come to believe—that the greater the size of a natural area, the better its quality as habitat for plants and animals—researchers in the Chicago Wilderness region are discovering a more complex picture. “The idea that ‘big is better’ is not as true as people think it is,” says Ron Panzer. A conservation biologist with Northeastern Illinois University and manager of the Indian Boundary Prairies in Markham, Illinois, Panzer studies prairies and the organisms that live in them. A noted expert on insects, he has found that a tremen - dous number of butterflies and other invertebrates thrive on relatively small patches of prairie. “At 1,500 acres, Goose Lake Prairie Nature Preserve in Grundy County, Illinois, has the same number of but - terfly species as the Gensburg Markham Prairie has in 150 acres,” Panzer says. “And I suspect the same is true for other insects.” This is encouraging news for local bugs and the people who love them. While the success of butterflies on small sites isn’t an argument against increasing the size of nature reserves, in many cases natural areas are hemmed in by developed land impos - sible to acquire or restore. Until fairly recently, ecologists shook their heads over small sites and assumed they were seeing the last generations of prairie- P h

o dependent butterflies ever to grace t o :

R those lands. The reasoning was that o b

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u when a butterfly population is small, r t i s /

T any unfavorable occurrence, such as a h e

E

a change in the water table or a blight r l y

B on the caterpillar’s host plant, might i r d e Buckeye r wipe out the population. While this

10 C HICAGO W ILDERNESS B u t t e r f l ie possibility and the rule that large pop - s learn the insect’s strengths and i

n o

ulations are less vulnerable haven’t u frailties.

r

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e

changed, Panzer and other insect spe - g It turns out that, unlike the free- i

o

n

…

cialists are finding that extremely rare S ranging regal fritillary, a Karner

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species continue to surprise us all by e blue stakes out a relatively small ter -

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- S

thriving in precariously tiny spots. p ritory. In the Indiana Dunes, P

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Grundel found it was unusual for a o

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S R o

Karner blue to strike out farther than b k

Thriving on Small Sites i

p C u p r

“For many insects, 20 acres may e 100 meters from home, and less t i r s , / T T h

P be large,” Panzer says. “A 20-acre site i than five percent ever flew farther g e h e E o r a t o S r

can support numerous prairie-requiring than 500 meters. Grundel’s dis - l : y

w M a B a i

l r r l d t butterflies.” o covery teaches land managers Painted lady h w e a t r a A i . As preserves go, even in the Chicago l that if habitat for one of the sub -

,

M B a

r la Tiger swallowtail k area, that’s small. There’s more land populations in a chunk of

s c k inside a highway cloverleaf. But there’s S lupine-rich oak savanna is

w

a

l l

evidence that butterflies requiring o ruined, the Karner blues

w

t

a

wetter-than-average conditions may be i can’t just pick up and fly

l

, C

able to stick it out in patches even a along to the next

b

b

a

tinier than 20 acres. Doug Taron, a g amenable remnant a mile

e

B

molecular biologist who has developed u down the road, the way some

t

t

e

r

an expertise in Chicago region butter - f butterflies would. In fact, at the l

y H ,

a flies from a decade of intense study, C Indiana Dunes, the parkland is

i o r m

s t m

r

e knows of a privately owned, three- o divided into east-west units sepa -

a n k S

s acre site in McHenry County in u rated by two steel mills. Karner blues

,

P l E f

h u o

a r t

which Baltimore checkerspots, / number in the thousands on the west

s o A t :

e R l

r o eyed browns, Acadian hairstreaks, f unit. None have been seen on the east

b n a

l

T f C a

u

, r a

and various sedge-eating skippers since 1976. t

G i

i

l

s e

/

r d T e h

are getting along just fine. All are a Grundel also determined specific B e t

E

S l

a u

r e considered “remnant-dependent” habitat needs of males and females. l

p

y

, Red-spotted

a S B n i

g r p species, meaning they can live The males spend 90 percent of their d

l

e e r purple

r i d

n g only in high-quality natural areas. F time in sunny openings, while

r A i t

i

z ll u While that’s good news for but - a females spend time in sun and par -

r r y

e ,

, Q

L terflies that don’t mind getting their tial shade. The females can’t know

i

t u

t e l

e feet wet, some upland species do s under what conditions lupines will

t W i o

n o

seem to require stretches of habitat M fare best in a given year, so they o

d a

r S greater than 20 acres. Taron believes k lay their eggs in varying types of

/ a

C t

y

some species of butterflies of tall - o canopy. Research like this can r

, m

W

P m

h a o

o grass prairie require closer to 100 d L help land managers make better e a , t

o d t o

n y P :

d i , a

a M i i

n acres of appropriate habitat. n decisions about how open a N P

s t o

n e

y e u t

a d

m r

G c

L n And some species need i savanna should become, and

r

p r i

a n e e

h d g y g m / , A E much, much more than 100 C how much shade is optimal. N e

l i y o s e

e a

acres. The regal fritillary in partic - P d k h ,

B o R t r ular likes to stretch its wings and fly long e o o : d Butterflies and Fire

w A - . n S

, distances. “The regal fritillary may Ron Panzer is in the process B

. M p

S o

o h t e

n require 1,000 acres,” says Panzer. t of completing a five-year study l e

a d

rc d o

n

h P /

While it is blessed with a rich array u on the impacts of fire on inverte - R

r o

p o l t

of butterfly life, the Chicago region e brates. He has found that in the R , P e

s e

o a

u

also has the people resources necessary r year following a burn there are

r

l c

C Karner blue e

s

r

to understand butterflies well enough e significantly fewer numbers of but -

s

c

e

to help them thrive. n terflies. However, one year later,

t ,

In northwest Indiana, Ralph B the butterfly population has gener -

u

c k

Grundel of the U.S. Geological e ally recovered. To survive long term, y e ,

Survey’s Biological Resources R prairies require fire, and certain but -

e

d Division is running an extensive A terflies require prairie. So while

d

m

program to learn the habits of and i individual eggs or larvae may be hurt r a

l , improve conditions for the Karner V by a fire, the population of prairie ic e r blue butterfly. A federally-endangered o butterflies increases as the overall y , H

species, the Karner blue’s reliance on a quality of the prairie improves. P

c h

k o

b t e o

wild lupine as the sole food for its cater - One of the more inspira - :

r r M y a

B r pillar is well-documented. But Grundel’s tional efforts underway t h

u a

t A

t . five-year research program has gone far e to protect Chicago’s butterflies

M r

f

Bronze a

l r y beyond such basics, helping biologists is the volunteer monitoring k , copper s

S UMMER 1998 11 Swallowtail, C lack abba d-Spo Butterfly, l, B ge loak, Re tted P rry tai B ing C urple kbe in our llow utt k/Comma, P urn , Pe ac lies regi wa erf n Mar aintoe arl C y, H erf on… er S ly tio , M d re ero utt S r, Tig , C ues y L sce , Vic ilve kippe o Q d a nt, B miral B r-Spotted S mm ry, a d uckeye, Red Ad on tilla y S ri L

ulfur/A led F /

lfalfa, G ang A reat Sp d

e

t

m

n

i e

a r

i P c a n

Tailed ch astern Blue, nar ks , E Spri Mo trea ng A wn, airs zure Bro H , Litt yed le Wood Satyr, Wood Nymph, E

From milkweed- network (see photos, page 29) led by particular butterfly living in a brushy eating caterpillar… Doug Taron, now of the Chicago prairie receiving no restoration assis -

C Academy of Sciences. A crew of 45 tance begins to decline. The land

a to chrysalis… t e r

p lepidoptera-literate volunteers have manager takes note of the butterfly

i to nectar-sipping l l a r / committed themselves to monitoring monitor’s report of diminishing butter - c adult—monarchs h r y s a are powered by butterflies at 35 sites around the flies, and therefore changes priorities l i s

s e plants. region. The protocols are based on a for this site in restoration plans. q u e

n British system in which an ecologist Others can use monitoring data to c e

p

h walks a predetermined transect across educate county boards or state legisla - o t o s :

a preserve and records every butterfly tors about what land needs to be R o b

e identified within 10 meters of the acquired to protect butterflies. r t

K u

c path. Participants in Taron’s network e r a

& commit to visit their assigned pre -

G Butterflies as Barometers a i l

serves four to six times between Butterflies lend themselves well to a N a c h

e mid-June and the end of July. monitoring effort. The number of l Over time, the information accumu - species is manageable; there are lated by the volunteer monitors approximately 100 different kinds in becomes increasingly valuable. the Chicago area. Unlike other insect “Individual year-to-year variation groups, most butterfly species are Lepidopterist Ron doesn’t mean very much,” Taron says. simple to identify. One can study but - Panzer releases Weather affects the growth of plants terflies without having to destroy rescued butterflies the caterpillars depend on, and one them, whereas some other insects are in restored habitat. year there may be too difficult to conclusively identify in more parasites on the field. Butterflies are active during that type of plant the day, so researchers don’t need spe - than in another, cial nighttime equipment. It’s possible resulting in a tem - to survey butterflies without having a porary plummet. large impact on the preserve—many “We have to col - volunteers become proficient enough lect data long to identify them on the wing and enough that real don’t need to catch them. trends can be seen There are many readily available over the back - field guides. And about a third of but - ground noise.” terfly species are dependent on high- With moni - quality natural areas. Both these factors toring infor- make them a logical selection for study. mation in hand, However, there are drawbacks to managers can using butterflies as indicators of the take butterflies’ health of an ecosystem overall. needs into “They’re just one group of insects,” account in deci - Taron cautions. “We couldn’t possibly sions about study each and every insect group as

P habitat restora - thoroughly. [Butterflies] are a good h o t o

: tion. A simplistic proxy, but you simply can’t automati -

S t e

p scenario would be cally apply what we know about h e n

P that the popula - butterflies to every other insect.” a c k a

r tion of a Still, before the butterfly network, d most preserves had no monitoring of P h o

t any invertebrate animals. Butterflies— o :

See page 14 B a and the folks who appreciate r r y

to learn more L .

them—have added a new dimension W

about local h i t

e to the stewardship of nature. butterflies. Jill Riddell is a writer who does most of her butterfly observing in parts of the Chicago Wilderness with a little less con - crete than her Bucktown neighborhood. She writes frequently on nature for WBEZ Radio and Chicago Magazine .

12 C HICAGO W ILDERNESS Into the Wild OUR GUIDE TO THE WILD SIDE Bring field guides and binoculars—or just your senses and spirit.

These lands are among our best and brightest gems of ancient nature. f you would like to learn more about Irestoration activities near your home, attend one of the WORK PARTIES or WALKS listed on the following pages. Volunteers, under the guidance of landowners, lead work parties and tours of the sites where restoration is taking place. Long pants, long- sleeved shirts, sturdy shoes/boots, a hat, and sunscreen/insect repel - lent are recommended. Pre-registration is not necessary, although you may want to call ahead in case of questionable d r weather or possible a k c a

P schedule changes. n e h p Families are welcome at e t S

:

o most events. No experi - t o h

P ence is necessary.

Kenosha

1 POPLAR CREEK —Cook County McHenry Lake 2 WEST CHICAGO PRAIRIE— DuPage County 1 3 INDIAN BOUNDARY PRAIRIES —Cook County Kane 2 4 LOCKPORT PRAIRIE —Will County Cook DuPage 5 POWDERHORN MARSH & PRAIRIE —Cook County 5 3 4 Will Lake Porter

Maps: Lynda Wallis

S UMMER 1998 13 making friends

with butterflibey Jill Rs iddell y e l s g u P

a n n A

: o t o h P

best. You may need both the Peterson Visit a LiVe exhibit. and Audubon guides, as they have • For inquiring minds: “Prevalence of Remnant-Dependence • At the Field Museum’s “Living Colors” different strengths; between the two Among Prairie Inhabiting Insects of exhibit, there are 38 species of local, you should be able to identify most of the Chicago Region.” By R. Panzer, D. living butterflies on display in a what you find. Also, the relatively Stillwaugh, R. Gnaedinger, G. screened-in area with native plants new “Butterflies Through Binoculars” Derkovitz. Natural Areas Journal , outside the Museum’s north entrance. offers a wonderful breakthrough in Vol. 15, 1995. pp. 101-116. The exhibit runs through Monday, butterfly observation. Emphasizing This article covers the species of but - September 7. Open every day, 9:00- features that can be seen on living terflies in the Chicago region that 5:00. Admission to the exhibit is $4 butterflies floating around in the real depend on prairies and savannas. for adults, $2 for children. Field world rather than on mounted speci - “Effectiveness of A Vegetation-Based Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt mens, the book brings butterfly Approach to Insect Conservation.” Road and Lake Shore Drive, watching one step closer to bird By Ron Panzer. Conservation Biology , (312) 922-9410. watching. All that’s needed is a pair of binoculars capable of focusing five Vol. 12, 1998. pp. 693-702. This arti - • Beginning in the spring of 1999, the or six feet away. cle demonstrates statistically that Chicago Academy of Sciences will have land managers who rely heavily on a continuous display of free-flying Peterson Field Guides: Eastern plant conservation efforts often end Illinois butterflies in a 2,700-square- Butterflies. By Paul A. Opler and up doing a good job protecting foot greenhouse in its new home, The Vichai Malikul. insects as well. Nature Museum, at Fullerton and National Audubon Society Field Cannon Drive along the Chicago lake - Guide to North American Butterflies. become a VoLunteer front. The Academy will also undertake By Robert Michael Pyle. butterfLy monitor. the challenge of breeding certain rare species in captivity to help re-estab - Butterflies Through Binoculars: A Field • Volunteers are trained in identification lish populations at natural areas in Guide to Butterflies in the Boston- and monitoring techniques. The ideal the Chicago region, (773) 549-0606. New York Washington Region. By monitor would be someone who Jeffrey Glassberg. Much of it is applic - already has a general knowledge of able to our area. A new version for a the most common kinds of butterflies, take a trip larger area that will include ours though it doesn’t take long to learn with a fieLd guide. (called Butterflies Through Binoculars: them. Contact The Nature Conservancy • Butterfly guides abound—here are the The East ) is expected soon. for information, (312) 346-8166.

14 C HICAGO W ILDERNESS POPLAR CREEK —Cook County

W ORK P ARTIES oplar Creek Prairie and eye grass, and many others. roads, buildings, or other Woodland comprise a Coreopsis, coneflowers, man-made objects. One can COOK Pbig and beautiful 600 prairie blazing star, and imagine how Illinois looked Santa Fe Prairie: acres of Cook County Forest others make the prairie a 200 years ago. Sept 13, Oct 11, 9 a.m. Preserves in Hoffman feast of color during the For more information Take Rte. 45 to 67th St. Follow road Estates. It’s also part of the summer. One may also find contact Crab Tree Nature east past railroad tracks, turn right 4,200-acre complex of unusual plants like porcu - Center at (847) 381-6592. at fork. Contact Karen Stasky or Greg Poplar Creek Preserves. And pine grass, which has long, For volunteer information Starr: (708) 598-6139. it links up (via a conserva - needle-like seeds. Dropping contact Jill Flexman at tion easement through the to the soil, these seeds (847) 931-9491. Prairie at Brookfield Zoo: international offices of twist and bend in response Sept 5, Oct 3, 9 a.m. Sears) with yet thousands to changes in humidity, lit - DIRECTIONS Contact David Wachtel: more acres in the Spring erally corkscrewing them - Take I-90/Northwest Tollway (312) 346-8166 x30 Creek Preserves south and selves into the soil. to Rte. 59. Head south on west of Barrington. In the lowland areas, vol - Rte. 59. Entrance lies on Wolf Road Prairie: All this land is great habi - unteers are removing the west side about 1/2 every Saturday, 9 a.m. tat for animals and has great drainage tiles to restore the mile past Shoe Factory Road Travel south of I-290 on Wolf Rd. to restoration potential, but natural wetland hydrology. at a sign reading “Shoe 31st St. Go west on 31st to parking the best quality is in a few In the oak woodland west Factory Woods.” bays on north side of 31st. Contact hundred of these 600 acres. of the parking lot, visitors Larry Godson: (708) 562-3280 Dry prairie on a gravelly, will find august bur oaks —Jim Kostohrys well-drained hill slopes and hickories presiding over down to mesic prairie and rich assemblages of shoot - finally to wetland communi - ing star, wild hyacinth, Joe ties. pye weed, and others. Some Shoe Factory Rd. Poplar Creek has 125 dif - of the oaks in the area are ferent species of native 250 to 300 years old. Bur plants and, although most of oaks with thick, cork-like, the land was farmed for more insulating bark are toward N than 100 years, there are sur - the edges of the grove, S prisingly few exotic species. where they withstood u t t

The Poplar Creek Prairie the flames of prairie o n

Stewards have worked on the fires and witnessed R d . site since 1989, assisting the passing of the Overlook / R t with prescribed burns, Potawatomi and the X e .

5

reseeding and planting buffalo. 9 native species, and pulling An additional of exotics. Back then, more benefit derived than 80 volunteers planted from a prairie of d a o r 8.4 miles of contour strips, this size is the l i a R 20 feet wide and 40 feet sense of E

apart. Nearly a decade later, serenity one & E

N J T

the strips are dense tall gets when R Pond A prairie, and the land between gazing out N C is starting to be recolonized over the E by natives as well. rolling Dam Another benefit of the hills, size of the area is that cer - unbro - tain animals—especially ken by grassland birds such as bobolinks and savanna spar - rows, which require large areas to breed, settle, or nest—find this large prairie adequate to their needs. ek Visitors will find prairie Cre lar plants such as wild false Pop indigo, penstemon, seneca snakeroot, lead plant, blue Golf Road/Rte. 58

S UMMER 1998 15 WEST CHICAGO PRAIRIE— DuPage County

W ORK P ARTIES est Chicago Prairie high-quality mesic prairie the preserve. The list of spreads out over 300 whose plants flower in a mammals ranges from DuPAGE acres of relatively succession of tremendous white-tailed deer and coy - Powis Prairie: W flat land in western DuPage color from spring until the ote to meadow vole and October 4, noon to 3 p.m. County near Fermilab. Less first frost. Nearly every two thirteen-striped ground Contact Bill Gunderson: than seven feet separate the weeks, a new set of flowers squirrel. Butterflies and (630) 665-5183. highest and lowest points, are blooming. In July and skippers congregate near but the lack of dramatic August, Culver’s root and the wet potholes; volunteers St. Stephen’s Cemetery Prairie: topography belies a tremen - tall coreopsis are flowering. are working to create a but - October 3, 9 a.m. dous variety of plants, ani - The Cross Trail passes terfly habitat near the Travel 1/2 mile east of Schmale on mals, and habitats. It’s a through one of the least savanna to attract even St. Charles Rd. Park on north DuPage County Forest disturbed wet-mesic prairies more. shoulder of St. Charles Rd. at Preserve, but don’t come in northeastern Illinois. One The core of the site is chain link fence near Wheaton looking for developed recre - sees few invasive species 150 acres of high-quality Supply. Contact Bill Gunderson: ation areas: the emphasis here. Shooting star and land, bought by the Forest (630) 665-5183. here is on enjoying nature hoary puccoon bloom in Preserve District and the city and viewing natural process - spring and early summer, of West Chicago in 1978. KANE es in action. And it’s a great while the colors of plants Another 155 acres have been Burlington Prairie: place for that. like sky-blue aster and added as a buffer; some of Aug 22, 9:30 a.m. West Chicago Prairie fea - prairie dock dominate in this land was in good shape Contact Jackie Coffey: tures nearly every type of late summer and fall. when it was acquired, while (847) 464-5256. natural landscape found in Other trails pass a cotton - some had been degraded by northern Illinois. There are wood swamp, which devel - farming and grazing. Active Fabyan Shelf Prairie prairies, of course, both wet oped in the recent past restoration is on-going in Contact Bob Lootens: and mesic varieties. Sedge when fires were suppressed. some parts; in others, as (630) 879-2552 meadows, a bur oak savanna Thanks to prescribed burns, with the lone bur oak and its with some gnarled trees the area is slowly returning saplings, nature is slowly nearly 200 years old, wood - to its natural state as an recolonizing the disturbed lands, ponds, and swampy open wetland. Not far away land. glacial potholes round out is a large bur oak. This The Illinois Prairie Path the scene. whole area was a savanna marks the preserve’s north - An extensive trail system before it was farmed; today, ern border and several of provides great views of the the old tree is surrounded the preserve’s trails inter - preserve’s wide range of by oak saplings forming the sect the Prairie Path. The habitats. A short hike along first stage of a new savanna. trails are unpaved. The pre - Hawthorne Ln. the West Loop The prairie grasses here serve is open from one hour Trail, near the grow too tall for most after sunrise to one hour parking grassland birds. But other after sunset. For more infor - . d

R area, species flock to the wet - mation, call the DuPage

N n o passes lands, woods and savanna; County Forest Preserve s l i C P .

. a nearly 170 bird species have District at (630) 942-6075.

r h r i D

D c

a

l been recorded at the site.

n g

a Lee o e i r e &

t Summer visitors may see DIRECTIONS

u

s N Q

u L W c

d a American kestrel, teal and The preserve is just west of a n R n e . M I R R . d wood ducks, red-tailed and Reed-Keppler Park in West . Cooper’s hawks, and flick - Chicago. Take Rte. 59 to MacQueen ers, among others. The Roosevelt Rd.; head west Woodland Trail Old Stockyards Trail, 2.8 miles to Kress Rd. Turn in the southeast right; after crossing the rail -

il a corner of the site, road overpass, turn right on r il Gentian Trail T a s r rail s T leads to Heron Downs Dr. Half a mile later, op T o t W. Lo r s C a Western E Pond, a good turn left on Industrial Dr.; il Dr. Sa ra Entry Truit Trail vanna T place to see green the entrance to the preserve Trail Old Stockyard and great blue is just ahead, on the right. Trail herons. Several species of — Chris Larson turtles (including Blanding’s), snakes, and frogs live at Downs Dr.

16 C HICAGO W ILDERNESS INDIAN BOUNDARY PRAIRIES —Cook County

W ORK P ARTIES s an assemblage of others that now sway in the playing in the grass and large and high-quality breeze by the thousands. flowers, was the spark plug COOK Illinois grasslands, the “The easiest prairie to who championed the preser - A Paintbrush Prairie: Aug 22, Sept Indian Boundary Prairies restore is one that’s pretty vation of Paintbrush, 19, Oct 17, 10 a.m. Meet at have no equal. They’re a good to start with,” says Dropseed, and Sundrop. The 154th Pl. and Millard Ave. place to see great hordes of Panzer. “And this one’s a kids there now may be the Markham, Contact Bill Sluis: butterflies, to hear prairie fine example.” ones who make the citizen (708) 385-6420. birds sing on the air, a place Panzer himself restored scientist discoveries here in Dropseed Prairie: Aug 29, Sept to see more than 200 specie s the Franklin’s ground squir - the years ahead. 26, 10 a.m. Meet at 156th St. and of rare plants. Gray fox, rel. Since the site is an The most remote-feeling Homan Ave. Markham, Contact Pat Franklin’s ground squirrel, Illinois Nature Preserve, he of the Indian Boundaries is Brownlow: 708-333-2549. Henslow’s sparrow, prairie needed the blessing of the Sundrop, south of Paintbrush Gensburg-Markham Prairie: lily—you name it, it’s there. Nature Preserves on the east side of Kedzie. Sept 5, Oct 3, 10 a.m. The place to start is the Commission, which had not Like all these sites, it is Meet at 157th St. and Whipple Gensburg tract. The narrow approved this sort of thing another failed subdivision, a (near McDonald’s). Contact George footpath heading east from before, but found Panzer’s little more beat-up than the Derkovitz: (815) 469-3937. the gate guides you past proposal sound. The stocky others, but a truly great Sundrop Prairie: some of the finest Grade A chocolate brown rodents are place to watch the progress Sept 14, Oct 12, 10 a.m. prairie anywhere. As the rarely seen, as they spend of restoration. Notice the Meet at 151st St. and Central Park trail turns north and then their time in tunnels under humble but industrial- Ave. Markham, Contact Eric Schiavi: back west along a drainage the grass and in their bur - strength fence along the (815) 439-2463. ditch marking the preserve’s rows, but their high clear street—materials scrounged northern edge, you pass whistle gives away their by volunteer stewards. This DIRECTIONS through a variety of moder - presence. fence ended the parade of Paintbrush Prairie: From I-57 take 159th Street west to ately disturbed habitats. The smallest of the Indian dumping vehicles that Pulaski, then north (right) to 155th; then east (right) to They’re slowly being nursed Boundary Prairies, Dropseed sneaked in from time to Millard; then north (left) to the end. back to life by preserve Prairie, has the blackest soil time for years. Volunteers Dropseed Prairie: From I-57, take 159th Street east to manager Ron Panzer and a (all these sites have some lugged dozens of truckloads Kedzie (the first major light); take Kedzie north (left) to spirited army of volunteer degree of sandiness, as old of trash out of the site, and 157th Street; then west (left) to Homan; then north (right) one block to the prairie, on the left. stewards. Come back year Glacial Lake Chicago sand now the birds, butterflies, Gensburg-Markham Prairie: From I-57 take 159th Street after year; it’s always differ - bars are evident through - blooms, and grasses are east to Whipple (just before the McDonald’s). Go left on ent and always better. out). It has a number of increasing annually. Whipple to the end. In the 1930s, streets were species, like the rare edible The prairies are open dur - Sundrop Prairie: From I-57, take 159th Street east to laid out here. You’ll notice valerian, that can’t be found ing daylight hours. Please Kedzie (the first major light); take Kedzie north (left) to the prairie, on the left. parallel ditches marking their in the larger sites. stay on existing footpaths. edges. But the financial Fall is a great time to crash stopped the planned see the rare gentians SUNDROP 149th development, and the land and gerardias at PRAIRIE lay in limbo for decades until Paintbrush Prairie, an “Mr. Prairie”—Dr. Robert unusual neighborhood

Betz—enlisted The Nature institution. Completely . e Conservancy to assemble surrounded by subdivi - v A 7

5 e enough tax delinquent sions, it draws neighbor - i y U z a d w parcels to make a pre serve. hood children, some of e s T s r K e i r Conservationists have gradu - whom seem to know the xp S E t a n t ally assembled a preserve whereabouts of every ya e R U n 2 which now tops 200 acres snake and toad. a 9 and continues to grow. Neighbor Cal Barber, D 4 Visitors will appreciate who grew up the richness of purple and PAINTBRUSH PRAIRIE N white prairie clovers at the 154th entrance gate. Amazingly, none were there when the Pedestrian restoration started. Betz 155th Overpass DROPSEED PRAIRIE and the volunteers brought GENSBURG d i r a the seed in from surviving k PRAIRIE l s i a l populations nearby, as they M u P

did with the fringed gen - / k d r r a 157th St. tians, smooth phlox, and o P f

e l i w a z a r d r t e C n K e

C 6 S UMMER 1998 159th St. u 17 LOCKPORT PRAIRIE —Will County

W ORK P ARTIES ockport Prairie is a lost The varied habitats—dry endangered Hine’s emerald wonder worth discover - and mesic prairies, marshes, dragonfly, which was first WILL ing. Nestled against the sedge meadows, and fens— discovered here in 1983. Lockport Prairie: L Des Plaines River to the provide environments in That year, too, the site was October 10, 9 a.m. east and the Chicago & which more than 100 dedicated as a state nature Take route 53 south to Division Illinois Western Railroad to species of rare native plants preserve. The federally- Street. Turn east on Division and fol - the west, this 254-acre strip and animals thrive. endangered leafy prairie low to trail head. Contact Phyllis offers a rare glimpse of an The Des Plaines River clover, one of North Schulte: (708) 479-1097. almost pristine dolomite Valley, in which Lockport America’s rarest plants and prairie. Prairie is located, was the found in only three loca - Romeoville Prairie: Here a shallow limestone outlet for Glacial Lake tions in the state of Illinois, Sept 26, 9 a.m. soil restricts the prairie Chicago during the dwells here as well. Prior to Meet at Isle a la Cache Museum park - plants’ roots that normally Pleistocene Age. When the the discovery of the clover ing lot, at 501 E. Romeo Rd., 1/2 grow six–to–eight feet glaciers retreated some here, the last record of the mile east of Rte. 53. Contact Phyllis deep. It is in this unique 12,000 years ago, large vol - plant in Illinois was more Schulte: (708) 479-1097. environment that rare umes of water flowed than 70 years ago. dolomite prairie species can through the valley, eroding On a sunny afternoon, grow. Some areas drain it to bare bedrock. As a one might see flocks of quickly and dry out in sum - result, the shallow soil con - egrets wading and kingfish - mer, providing conditions tains elements leaching up ers darting at the marshes’ for more rare plants of from the limestone. surface for a tasty snack. A parched ground. Elsewhere, It is just this shallow soil favorite spot for many visi - the water table wells up that may have been tors, however, is the natural through the dolomite Lockport Prairie’s saving spring in the center of the bedrock, forming marshes grace. Because of its unsuit - trail to the left that offers and fens. ability for farming, this land up diamonds of icy water was purchased for the con - drops in the prairie heat. struction of the Chicago Stop, sit down on the State R te. 7 Sanitary and Ship Canal. roughly-hewn flat bridge Then it sat for that spans the spring, and decades, an drink in a gem: the Lockport unknown rem - Prairie Nature Preserve.

7 nant of pre-set - Lockport Prairie is owned by N . e t tlement Illinois. the Metropolitan Water R

.

R When a visitor Reclamation District and

s

e stands in the cen - managed by the Forest

n l

i a

a n ter of the trail and Preserve District of Will l a P C

s p scans eastward County. For information, call

e i h D S across the tops of a (815) 726-3306. As a dedi -

& 3 5 myriad of purple cated state nature preserve, y . r a e t t i meadow rue, old witch there is plenty of nature but R n a S grass, big blue stem, no picnic area or rest rooms.

o g and wild raspberries and a c i h plum, DIRECTIONS: C “natural Take the Stevenson history” Expressway (I-55) south to

. becomes visu - Rte. 53. Continue south - t S

e ally literal. ward, just past the turnoff t a t Lockport Prairie to Lockport, to Division St. S Stateville Rd. Division St. allows a rare and turn left. Drive down * glimpse of this the steep slope of that t Trails e e region’s living glacial outlet to the flats; r Head t S past. Lockport Prairie appears on y a Discoveries don’t both sides of the road from w L OCKPORT d . a R o . end at the trail. the RR tracks to the Des r R B le One may see state-endan - Plaines River. u G . gered spotted turtles, the .C I federally-threatened lakeside — Sharon L. Comstock daisy, or the federally-

18 C HICAGO W ILDERNESS POWDERHORN MARSH & PRAIRIE —Cook County

W ORK P ARTIES owderhorn Marsh and ridges. Walk through the DIRECTIONS: Prairie is a restorative black oaks that run along Powderhorn is located near MCHENRY find for the city-weary. the ridge tops and soon the Illinois/Indiana border P Pleasant Valley Prairie: Located in the Calumet you’ll find yourself in one on the far south side of Aug 15, Sept 12 Contact Steve region, straddling the city of the finest complexes of Chicago and in Burnham, Francis: (847) 669-9447. line between Chicago and savanna, prairie, and marsh off S. Brainard Ave. From Sands Main Street Prairie: Aug 29 Burnham, Powderhorn is a anywhere. Blazing stars, the north, take I-94, exiting Contact Jim Alwill: (847) 516-4306. tallgrass complex that asters, goldenrods, sunflow - at E. 130th St. Head east to stands as testament to the ers, and towering grasses of Brainard Avenue, and turn Wingate Prairie: indomitable spirit of the prairie form bands south (right). Powderhorn Aug 19, Aug 26, Aug 29, Sept 5, Sept nature. between the marsh grasses, will be on the left side of 9, Sept 16, Sept 23, Sept 26, Sept Shallow marshes and wet rushes, cattails and orchids the street. For more infor - 30. Contact Jim Wigman: prairies once filled the that teem in the swales. mation, call (708)868-0606. (815) 337-3431. Chicago lakeplain behind (Unfortunately rampant Cary Hillside Prairie: Sept 29 Contact the sand ridges and purple loosestrife is in the —Sharon L Comstock Mark Neiweem: beaches along the edge of swales too.) Look for (847) 639-8294. Lake Michigan. Potawatomi herons, egrets, moorhens, canoes once glided red-tailed hawks, through the vast tallgrass Eastern blue - prairie, savanna, wetland birds, Eastern complex spanning roughly meadowlarks, 22,500 acres across the and gray cat - Calumet region. birds, as well as Lake Then the industrial age a variety of Marsh arrived. Railroads, heavy waterfowl, such industry, and neighbor - as blue-winged hoods replaced the original teal, mallard, Calumet. Yet intermixed and wood duck. with it all remains one of In migration, a the Midwest’s most critical short-eared owl stopovers for migrating may pop into birds and one of the great - view. Mammals? est concentrations of If you’re lucky, threatened and endangered you may glimpse species in Illinois. a coyote hunting N Powderhorn Who’d expect this site to the rare Lake host the Midwest’s largest Franklin’s ground breeding colony of state squirrel. endangered black-crowned Perhaps the night herons? It’s noted in most striking the recent feasibility study find for many by the National Park first-time visitors Entrance Service, which is consider - is the prickly ing the creation of a nat - pear cactus, ural heritage area that which thrives on C h would include Powderhorn the sandy ridge . e e sa v p and Calumet as a link tops. At this A e

a k

m e between Indiana Dunes to point you may a & h O the east and the Illinois feel as if you’ve n h r io u

and Michigan Canal left the city B R .R . B National Heritage Corridor behind. ra in to the west. Powderhorn is a rd A South of the parking lot proof that there v BURNHAM WOODS e. is Powderhorn Lake, dug as is yet wilderness GOLF COURSE a “borrow pit” for express - on the edges of way fill, and now a popular the city of fishing spot. North and Chicago itself! east of the parking lot is a Litt le Calum series of ancient beach et River

S UMMER 1998 19 Natural Events I l l u s t r a t i o n :

CALENDAR J i m

K o

Here’s what’s debuting on nature’s stage in Chicago Wilderness by Jack MacRae s t o h r y s

A UGUST

Teach Your Children prairie, specifically along the tives? Remember all the but - ries stem from the efforts of The sandhill crane pair that prairie/woodland edges, terflies found plastered on the the human species. have taken residence in Pratt’s amongst the shrubs. Listen as car grille? Chances are good Restoration volunteers remov - Wayne Woods in DuPage County you walk through the tallgrass that a regal fritillary was one ing brush in wetland areas are busy teaching their young - prairie for the loud, bird-like of these unfortunate victims. such as Nelson Lake Marsh in ster how to be a good adult whistle of the Franklin’s, a Today, this orange butterfly is Kane County and Bluff Spring crane. This week’s lesson is how sharp ringing note that may be uncommon in this region as Fen, east of Elgin in Cook to catch the young bullfrogs heard for a considerable its habitat has been greatly County, are improving habitat that are swimming in the water. distance. diminished. The Braidwood for the eyed-brown butterfly. The crane family does not want Dunes and Savanna in Will A marvelous place to see a to be embarrassed this autumn, Lucky 13 County does have the appro - multitude of butterflies is the when they will join their crane The 13-lined ground squirrels priate habitat; specifically, it Parson’s Grove of the Danada friends from Lake and McHenry are doing well in our area. has bird’s foot violets, the Forest Preserve in Wheaton, IL. Counties and travel to their Historically, these rodents were favorite food of the fritillary winter home along the coast of found on the shortgrass prairie. caterpillar. Crayfish Beware Texas. As the landscape was altered Fortunately, the butterfly The thousands of young cray - through settlement and devel - news is not all gloom and fish living in the creeks of Picky Eaters opment, the 13-liners were doom. There are some McHenry County had better The juvenile Franklin’s able to move east. Now they species—such as the red watch out. The rare Blanding’s ground squirrels at Gensburg are common residents of the admiral—whose populations turtles will be hatching soon Markham Prairie (page 17) are Chicago Wilderness, living the are holding their own, due to and are going to be mighty having a hard time. This is good life on our golf courses their ability to adapt to the hungry. Showing excellent culi - their first time out foraging for and public parks and the urban landscape. Another nary taste, these turtles would food by themselves and, like grounds of Brookfield Zoo. example is the strikingly col - like nothing better than to most of us at that age, they’re ored black swallowtail, whose chomp on some crawdads. picky eaters and have found Flitter About caterpillar has found the Always health conscious, nothing that tastes good. They Do you remember those long Queen Anne’s lace to be quite Blanding’s turtles receive calci - require the shelter and food summer drives the family took tasty. um from eating the shells of found only in the tallgrass to visit your mother’s rela - Other butterfly success sto - freshwater crustaceans. NATURAL WONDERS Come explore the “Natural Wonders” of the region on a free, guided nature walk in any of a dozen spectacular S EPTEMBER natural areas! August 22, 8pm-9:30pm September 19, 10am-12pm Dune Hickory Nuts Hatching Snappers Moonlight Serenade, Glacial Park Builders, Illinois State Beach For many centuries, the The snapping turtle eggs (McHENRY) Park (LAKE) nuts of the hickory tree were that were laid during the last August 29, 9am-11am September 19, 1pm-3pm an autumn staple for the ear - issue of Chicago WILDERNESS Biodiversity & Wildflowers, Chain Savanna Stroll, Somme Prairie liest residents of the Chicago are hatching during this issue. O’ Lakes State Park, Spring Grove Grove (COOK) Wilderness. It’s not surpris - The baby snappers are now (LAKE) ing. Hickory nuts are high in searching for a water home, September 20, 8am-3pm All Day protein, but perhaps more using their primitive little rep - August 29, 10am-12pm Prairie Hike, Waterfall Glen (DuPAGE) important, they taste much tilian brain to tell them where Views, Spring Bluff Forest better than other local nuts, to go and what to do. Preserve (LAKE) October 10, 9am-12pm Cowles such as acorns and black wal - Snappers, by far the largest of Bog: Fall Nature Hike (Porter, IN) September 12, 9am-12pm Cap nuts. The sweet, delicious this region’s turtles (some October 10, 10am-12pm Shake a meat of the nut can be specimens reach 50 lbs.), are Sauers: Souvenirs of the Glacial Ebbing, Palos Park (COOK) Tail Feather, Nelson Lake Marsh ground into flour and baked common throughout our (KANE) into dense muffins. Trivia waterways. They are often September 13, 1:30pm-3pm enthusiasts will be glad to unseen by the public because Habitat Sampler Tour, Grant know that, when burned, they spend much of their time Woods, Fox Lake (LAKE) To register, call Chicagoland hickory wood produces more crawling slowly along the bot - Environmental Network at British Thermal Units (BTU’s) tom in search of carrion and September 13, 1:30pm-3:30pm (708) 485-0263 x396. than anthracite coal. crayfish. A Walk in the Bog, Volo Bog (LAKE)

20 C HICAGO W ILDERNESS eCo-trivia: stump your parents, Challenge your kids!

Cattail fuzzy seeds put Cup plaNt around babies’ bottoms to absorb travelers could find moisture water caught in leaves

Milkweed juice used to stick rosiN weed wild things together white wild fibers chewed to bergaMot freshen mouth settled an upset iNdigo stomach soup prairie willow NoddiNg tea for treating wild oNioN headaches juice used to CoMpass discourage insects plaNt prairie doCk leaves point north used to scrub pans and south JuNe grass white makes things prairie Clover smell good Illustration applied to stop by Bobby Sutton bleeding

ative Americans and Npioneers found what they needed in the prairie. Match each prairie plant with a product used today.

Concept and information thanks to Janice Kasper and Mary Ochsenschlager of the St. Charles Park District and Danielle Ebersole of the Kane County Forest Preserve District.

S UMMER 1998 21 Meet your neighbors approximately 350 native plant species—including endangered or Prairie Doc threatened species—such as white lady Ray Schulenberg: slipper orchids, sand milkweed, and prairie bush clover. “I usually try to discipline myself to refer to the Morton Project as a ‘planting of prairie plants’,” says Schulenberg. “There are still many prairie plant species lacking from it. It doesn’t include all the soil microor - ganisms, all the little insects, mites, fungi, bacteria, and so on, that the original prairie contained, although it has been fairly successful. I’m gratified every time I go back and see how well it has maintained itself and improved itself over the passing of time.” The intense labor that Schulenberg and his hand-trained volunteers invested in the project is legendary, and their tactics served as a model for future projects in Illinois. For the first few years, folks crawled around the property with linoleum knives and pocket whetstones, cutting weeds indi - vidually from among the native prairie seedlings. Many of these people became the beginnings of the “the restoration movement” which has spread world-wide from its apparently humble beginnings. “By the fall of ‘64, the end of the second growing season, the warm season grasses in the planting had pro - vided enough fuel so that the prairie was ready to be burned,” Schulenberg says. They have burned two-thirds of it every year since. Ray Schulenberg had been con - cerned with rapidly growing rates of extinctions since he was a child. While traveling around the continent

P in the ‘40’s, he hung around some h o t o Native American communities which :

K a r

e led to an interest in a loss of the nat - n

E n

g ural areas along with the loss of Native s t r o

m cultures. He earned his BS degree in horticulture, with an emphasis in To nurture its development, Ray Schulenberg burns two-thirds of his young prairie restoration every year. landscape architecture, at Iowa State University in 1955 (he was 34 years n 1962, Ray Schulenberg accepted in Madison. old), and dreamed of starting his own I an assignment from the director of A homestead by the 1820s, the nursery and raising native plants. the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, site’s intense farming led to almost However, he landed his initial job Illinois, to propagate a planting of complete soil erosion in the nearly with the Morton Arboretum through a native plants within a tract of newly 100 acres that now comprise Morton professor of his and, once there, he acquired property there. This was Arboretum’s Schulenberg Prairie. met naturalist May Thielgaard Watts arguably the second major ecosystem After 25 years of restoration, site man - and became interested in prairie restoration project in world history— ager Craig Johnson says Schulenberg ecosystems. the first being the one at the Prairie today is a largely self-sustaining Schulenberg contributed mightily to University of Wisconsin Arboretum prairie and savanna consisting of the early editions of the landmark

22 C HICAGO W ILDERNESS Ninety-five to 99 percent of the living things in the Chicago Wilderness are insects and plants. guide to local wild flora, Plants of the Chicago Region (Floyd Swink and Gerould Wilhelm. 1994. 4th ed. Indianapolis: Indiana Academy of Red bat: Science). He scoured the countryside Camouflaged bug buster for the plant data that makes up the heart of this essential local botany alk through a grove of trees in a began working at five McHenry tool. Renowned Morton Arboretum Wforest preserve this summer and County sites this summer. botanist, Floyd Swink, original author the region’s most colorful bat may be Visiting the preserves at dusk from of the Flora , points out that clinging upside down to a branch early June through early fall, they use Schulenberg also designed the system though you may never see it. The east - the bat detector to collect and amplify of maps that show the distribution of ern red bat ( Lasiurus borealis ) wears a sounds that are then recorded and each of the Chicago region’s 2,530 conspicuous russet fur that Henry brought back to the lab. A computer plant species. Schulenberg’s demarca - David Thoreau likened to the hue of a digitizes the sound patterns, which tion of a 75-mile radius spreading ripe cattail head, but it can camou - identify the bat species. outward from the center of the flage itself remarkably well. The red bat and the big brown bat Chicagoland grid at State Street and The red bat lives alone—not in were the two most common bats Madison Avenue, spanning 22 coun - colonies—hanging by day among detected at the study sites. “We ties in four states, has become leaves, against tree trunks, or under detected red bat activity at 90 percent essentially what many now recognize loose bark flakes, where it might be of the preserves, and most all summer as Chicago Wilderness. Schulenberg mistaken for a dead leaf. Here, in long,” says Gehrt. “These preserves presently makes his home on a 10- summer, the female red bat remains may be very important habitats for the acre plot in his own corner of that suspended from a branch all day long red bat, which is probably using the Wilderness, along the DuPage River as her two-to-five young cling to her, trees and foliage for roosting.” in Wheatland Township near feasting on her milk. This species Plainfield, Illinois. Though he is now actually migrates south like birds, —Sheryl De Vore 77 years old and retired, his own instead of overwintering in “yardwork” includes caring for a Midwestern caverns as do other of the reconstructed prairie of roughly 70 region’s bats. species with his friend David Kropp. Red bats mate while flying, in late Schulenberg’s home prairie is both a summer or early fall. The female passion and a mission, where he stores the sperm until she ovulates teaches plant identification by in spring. By the time she appointment, and where the only fee migrates back north in spring, she is is the desire to learn. “I am concerned ready to give birth. At night, she about people who think they can leaves her nursing young to feed on simply plant a few prairie plants on moths and other insects. A single red their school ground, on their business bat may consume 3,000 insects in one property, in their backyard, and suc - night. ceed with it as prairie,” he says. “And Seeing a red bat, or any of the eight they have no idea what is involved in bats that migrate through or bear establishing it to where it is a self- young in the region, is difficult. maintaining planting of prairie plants. Hearing their high-pitched sounds is At a time when proponents of impossible. But scientists now have a prairies and native plant species butt new device enabling them to “hear” heads with surging development, bats in the field. A bat detector, which Schulenberg strains for hope that can discern different bat species’ calls, these natural communities will not is helping the region’s researchers gain only be appreciated, but preserved and valuable information on how urban - restored. “These little efforts to set ization affects bats and which habitats aside land as preserves are about the attract them. only positive things I can see,” he Stan Gehrt, a wildlife research biol - says. “And those preserves are so small ogist for the Max McGraw Wildlife in terms of the total acreage that is Foundation in East Dundee, has P h o being so utterly devastated.” worked for three years with the Cook t o :

T e

Schulenberg’s words sound grim, but County Forest Preserve District and d

F a r r

his actions speak louder. His vision The Nature Conservancy to determine i n g t o

and dedication are restoring the spirit the presence of bat species at 15 forest n / R o of the prairie state. preserves including Black Partridge o t

R e s

Woods, Sand Ridge Nature Center, o u r c e —Barry Dredze and Poplar Creek. Researchers also s

S UMMER 1998 23 Meet your neighbors

native plants known as lizard’s tails. This spring they poked more holes in mud along the banks and plugged in Hoffman Dam River Rats: 1,000 blue flag iris. Next year they Reversing the river of no return plan to plant 20,000 more aquatics, all raised from native stock. The restoration species list will expand to include waterwillow, bur reed, sweet flag, and buttonbush. In the sur - rounding forest preserves, the River Rats clear away impenetrable non-

P native undergrowth so that light can h o t o

: reach the plantings and so one of the

C o u

r region’s other species—those of the t e s y

H human kind—are more likely to visit. o f f m The wide field of view also allows a n

D

a them to patrol for poachers. m

R i

v With Rung and Pescitelli as men - e r

R

a tors, the River Rats do most of the t s biological grunt work of data collec - Citizen activists can make the difference between a healthy eco-system and a pollution pit. tion—catching, counting, monitoring, and measuring fish, aquatic insects, ate in March of 1996, Chicago mouth bass. and other macroinvertebrates. Because LPolice Officer Jason Gorski stood To help enforce those regulations, each species has its own specific toler - knee deep in the Des Plaines River, Gorski founded the Hoffman Dam ance rating for pollution, they use the fishing pole poised just below the River Rats, a club that now coordi - data to assess changes in the healthi - Hoffman Dam where the river flows nates 200 amateur volunteers who ness of the river. through the western suburb of work with DNR biologists to restore And, Rung says, the grades are Riverside. He was dubious about this and enhance the fisheries and improving. In 1983, the river’s Index dirty river, but he figured wading spawning grounds of the river. To of Biotic Integrity (IBI) averaged 27, through the frigid waters of early spring ensure that their work is not ruined by resulting in a ‘D’ rating . Last year the IBI would give his bum ankle the cold-pack more pollution, the River Rats also increased to 36, giving the river a ‘C’. therapy he needed for ligaments torn keep an eye on the 20 businesses that The fish count is even more and cartilage ripped while on duty. are still allowed to dump waste into encouraging. In 1983, 1,008 fish, 32 But when the first fish caught hold the river. Eventually they hope to get species in all were collected. In 1997, of his line, nature caught hold of him. the river’s standard raised to prevent volunteers collected 3,374 fish, 40 Gorski reeled in a walleye pike, a any further dumping of contaminants. species in all, with an increase in species prized by sport fishermen, from “Due to the pollution, fish still dis - native species, and a decrease in rough a river so badly degraded that it should play disfigurements like sores, cancers, species. In that same time period, only have supported rough fish like and fin deformations,” Gorski says. numbers of northern pike went from carp. Prior to this visit, he had seen “And the spawning habitat had been three to 24; walleye from zero to six; everything from raw sewage to car destroyed for years and years.” and large-mouth bass, a native species parts float past as he walked by this IDNR biologists Bob Rung and more tolerant of pollution, from 49 to stretch of river. The walleye, he Steve Pescitelli have taught the River 91. Small-mouth bass, a species very decided, was just a passing fluke. Rats to take a multi-angle approach to intolerant to siltation and habitat Before long, he reeled in three more. their project—from clean-up, to habitat degradation, increased from one to 54. After decades of mistreatment, this restoration, to pollution prevention. The river is breathing once again. river was gasping back to life. Every April and October, the River Gorski says, “The fish are strug - “Something inside me said I had to Rats sponsor a clean-up along the gling. We need to respect them and do something to protect it,” Gorski banks and down the middle of the Des give them a chance to survive.” This is says now. “So I adopted it. It became Plaines, between Riverside Lawn and one police officer who extends his personal.” Riverside. So far, they have hauled out beat to the natural world, which he’ll So personal that Gorski recruited fifteen 55-gallon drums, numerous serve and protect. 1,000 people to sign a petition to save bicycles, folding chairs, rods and reels, River Rats meetings are open to the the river, prompting the Illinois firehoses, housing insulation, chain public and held at 6:30 p.m. the Department of Natural Resources link fencing, tires, and a few bank second Tuesday of every month. Drop (IDNR) to declare the Des Plaines safes. A 300-gallon heating oil tank by 27 Riverside Road in Riverside River a special management zone, remains submerged because they Township, or call Jason Gorski or imposing restrictions designed to pre - haven’t figured out yet how to lift it. Howard Brundage at (773) 585-4004. serve populations of highly desirable, Last fall they began an effort to sta - native sport fish like small- and large- bilize the riverbanks by planting 1,600 — Eugene Bender

24 C HICAGO W ILDERNESS Endangered fish of Chicago Wilderness include the banded killifish, Iowa darter, river redhorse, and the pugnose shriner. from predators such as birds and mice, it uses camouflage. The walkingstick’s long, thin, bumpy body looks like a Prairie walkingstick: tree twig or a branch from a prairie Native grassland dweller forb. As the prairie grasses turn from green to brown when seasons pass from spring to autumn, the prairie walkingstick’s body color changes, too. In spring, a nymph hatches from overwintering eggs that resemble tiny black seeds and have hard protective shells. The nymph looks like a minia - ture adult and molts or sheds its skin several times before reaching about four inches in length. The adults then mate and the female lays eggs that will overwinter, before she and the other adults die. Little is known about the prairie walkingstick, says Panzer. “We don’t even know how many eggs the female lays, though it’s probably at least 100,” he says. “We do know that the eggs are laid above ground,” where fire would likely destroy them. That fact presents a puzzle regarding some recent information he has gained by studying these creatures at Illinois Beach State Park. Prairie walkingsticks are “fire posi - tive,” says Panzer. That means that fire used to restore and manage prairies has probably increased the prairie walkingstick population. Panzer says he thinks the prairie walk - r e ingstick is doing well in the region z n a P

because entire areas are not burned all n o R

: at once. That way overwintering eggs o t o h

P in an area that has not been burned develop into young walkingsticks that Prairie walkingstick—an ancient inhabitant of an ancient community. seem to have a penchant for recently burned vegetation. They just migrate hildhood forays into the woods or handful of scientists who understood over to the rich, nutritious emerging Cbackyards in summer often reveal about the true native prairie, says Ron grasses. surprises—such as a twig that sudden - Panzer, a biologist at Northeastern Panzer is also researching a close ly starts moving and turns out to be Illinois University who is studying relative, the western walkingstick an interesting insect called the walk - walkingsticks and other insects in the (Diapheroma velei ), which feeds specif - ingstick. region. Walkingsticks are tied to the ically on a prairie legume called scurfy But not all walkingsticks are the native mesic and wet prairies of the pea ( Psoralia tenuflora) . The plant, same—and there’s one that you’ll region. Panzer said he’s found them which grows only in small numbers at only find in the region’s native living in at least three places in the a few Chicago Wilderness sites, still prairies. It’s called the prairie walking - Chicago Wilderness region: Illinois thrives on hill prairies in west-central stick ( Diapheromera blatchleyi ). Beach State Park in Lake County, IL, Illinois. The western and prairie walk - In 1907, W.S. Blatchley, an early and the Indian Boundary Prairies and ingsticks look extremely similar, yet 20th century entomologist, wrote that the Chicago Ridge Prairie in Cook each has its own biological niche. As the prairie walkingstick “prefers rank County, IL. Panzer’s studies continue, more may prairie vegetation and is found As with all insects, a walkingstick be learned about the walkingsticks throughout Illinois,” in the book, possesses a head, thorax, abdomen, that still find a place to live in our Orthoptera of Northeastern America . and six legs. A walkingstick, however, native prairies. At that time, Blatchley was one of a has no wings. Thus, to protect itself — Sheryl De Vore

S UMMER 1998 25 News of the wild

1 RARE FERN APPEARS 3 BANDED KILLIFISH funds needed by the Geneva Park District to Last summer while walking his dog in an The banded killifish, known from only purchase the site. Peck Farm was once abandoned gravel pit in the Blackhawk eight other locations in Illinois, was discov - nationally recognized for its flocks of pure- Forest Preserve in Kane County, Jon Duerr ered last February in a remote Lake County bred Merino sheep. Later years saw evolution spied a green shape in the shade of some tar - bog. Employees from Integrated Lakes of the farm into row crops and a cattle feed tarian honeysuckle. As Director of Field Management had been hired to remove non- lot. The third generation George Peck Services for the Kane County Forest Preserve native shrubs that were choking out the bog family, tired of seeing nearby farmland con - District, Duerr’s plant identification skills are at Grant Woods Forest Preserve near Fox verted to housing developments, decided this darn good, but this one stumped him. He Lake. Crew leader Pete Winkler had been site could be a memorial to founder Eli Peck. sent a sample for identification to fern expert noticing thousands of small fish under the Landscape architects and restoration ecolo - Dr. Warren Wagner at the University of clear ice when one somehow flopped out gists have been hard at work; native seed and Michigan. The finding? Botrychium through a hole onto the ice in front of him. a prescribed burning program are rapidly campestre, from a family of plants known as Recognizing that the fish was unusual, reclaiming nature lost during years of agricul - grape ferns. Though native to the western Winkler took it back to his Gurnee office, tural cultivation. Some old-fashioned farm prairie, this species has never been found in where the firm’s director, Jim Bland, identi - gardens will be retained as well. The prop - Illinois. “I don’t know if the spores blew fied it. “We were ecstatic,” says Bland. “Its erty, located near Kaneville Rd. and Fabyan across that distance on the wind or were presence raises interesting questions about Parkway, will feature a 20-acre shallow pot - brought here on train cars from the west, but the bog’s connection to nearby lakes and hole lake, 88 acres of planted mesic and wet the fern seems to like the gravely soil of that streams. This might be a relict population, prairies, seven acres devoted to educational pit,” Duerr said. “It’s just another exciting completely isolated from other killifish.” buildings and open spaces, and 18 acres for example of the crossroads of habitat that typ - Once common throughout northern Illinois, recreational fields. The 1860s farmhouse will ifies Chicago Wilderness.” the four-inch-long darter is considered contain two public rooms devoted to history and nature discovery; the corn crib will be —Mark Sheehy threatened by the Illinois Endangered Species Protection Board. Reasons for the converted to an orientation theater pro - 2 species’ decline are not well understood, but viding an overlook to the prairie and VOYAGEUR CANOEISTS wetlands, and walking trails will give visitors Musket shots—fired early in the morning ecologists point to poor water quality and a closer glimpse of bluebirds and waterfowl. of June 12th, in Swan Lake Park, possibly unnatural diseases and competition Peck Farm, a showpiece celebrating a bygone Wisconsin—launched a 75-mile Voyageur (unintentionally introduced by anglers who era and the restoration of native landscapes, Canoe Expedition down the Des Plaines may dump out extra live baitfish at the end opens in August. River ending near Romeoville, Illinois. of the day). These canoes, 26 feet long and weighing 300 —Cathi De Grenier pounds, are replicas of those used by the orig - 4 OSPREYS? inal French Canadian voyageurs, the KEEP YOUR DISTANCE! “truckers” of the fur trade for hundreds of The Birds of Illinois asserts that ospreys 2 years. The expedition made 21 stops along have not nested in Cook County in the the way to pick up and drop off elected offi - 20th century. Not, that is, until now. Like cials, agency staff, print media reporters, and its better known cousin, the bald eagle, the 3 others (including three county board com - osprey has made a remarkable comeback in missioners from Lake, Cook, and DuPage North America since DDT was banned, and Counties). Paul Stack, Mayor of Riverside, this summer a pair of these fish-eating birds announced that “Riverside has always looked hatched three young in a stick nest beside a at the river as a liability. Now, we are going Cook County Forest Preserve slough. Avid to develop the river as a recreational asset.” bird monitor Craig Thayer first saw the 7 x o

F Gary Mechanic, coordinator of the expedi - downy nestlings on June 21. Although D

e

s

P

tion, hoped the event would foster l ospreys generally are tolerant of humans, a i n e alliance-building: “Paddlers, bikers, runners, they are—like other birds—still susceptible s birder watchers, fishers—all want the same to nest failure if bothered too greatly during thing, a continuous greenway and water trail incubation and brooding. According to the 1 stretching the length of the Des Plaines Canadian Wildlife Service, “Predation of 8 River. We all meet at the water’s edge.” The young by crows, owls, gulls and raccoons 5 voyageurs helped kick off the Des Plaines does not usually happen unless parents have River Watershed Conference and a proposed been disturbed by humans.” Thayer hopes Friends of the Des Plaines River. If you live, that visitors to the site respect these mag - work, or play in the Des nificent birds and will not be tempted to 4

Plaines River watershed e bushwhack their way too close to the nest g 2 a P u and want to get site. The birds are easily viewed from a dis - D involved, contact tance with a spotting scope. Since ospreys Gary Mechanic show great site fidelity to an eyrie, they may N 0 (773) 267-0146 or return to breed in their Palos region pre - [email protected]. serve for many years. 9 0510 —Becky Polivka Miles 5 THE SECOND LIFE OF PECK FARM Citizens rescued Peck Farm from bull -

K dozers in 1991, when they voted to approve a nk akee

26 C HICAGO W ILDERNESS Out of the 40 species of butterflies in the Chicago area that need native grasslands, only one or possibly two have been extirpated. The rest are still here. 6 NATIONAL PARK QUIZ Providence Development Corporation) has Trick question: What national park is protected a vernal pool where this frog dominated by oaks, dunes, and wetlands and breeds. The Fairways Wetlands Restoration has tens of thousands of visitors annually? Project, named for the Fairways Townhomes Tricky hints: This park’s wide range of in Crete, lies adjacent to Goodenow Forest flora and fauna surprise many people, espe - Preserve. The vernal pool, a seasonally wet cially because proximity to a major urban depression, is just under an acre in size and center poses threats, including habitat frag - 1.5 feet at its deepest, yet provides valuable mentation, air and water pollution, and breeding habitat for several amphibian disrupted ground and surface water. species such as the blue-spotted salamander, Surprise answer? There are two: Indiana the spring peeper, and the eastern gray Dunes National Lakeshore and Poland’s treefrog. Most vernal pools like this one are Kampinoski Park Narodowy (Kampinos too small to be protected under the Clean National Park). As of April 15, 1998, these Water Protection Act and, as a result, devel - national parks on the fringes of Chicago and 8 HEAD START FOR TURTLES opers frequently fill them in or convert them Warsaw have been designated sister parks. In early July, 25 immature Blanding’s tur - to larger ponds (where fish may eat the On that day in Warsaw, officials signed mem - tles waddled off to new homes in the DuPage vernal pond amphibians). This site was des - oranda announcing that the National Park County Forest Preserves. After 10 months of tined for the same fate until interviews with Service and the Board of Polish National captive rearing at the County’s Willowbrook nearby residents showed that many moved Parks will exchange personnel, data, tech - Wildlife Center, these youths are the second there to be close to the forest preserve and nology, training, and experience. The parks group of captive born and reared turtles to be have a strong interest in wildlife and natural are hoping to embark on cooperative released under the District’s wildlife restora - settings. These interviews, conducted by the research projects on hydrology and European tion program. District ecologists have been county Land Use Department, convinced the bison (saved from extinction and living in attempting to restore populations of these developers to approve the restoration pro - the wild only in Poland’s parks). rare turtles ever since they were located in posal. “We’re hoping the project will be DuPage County during an amphibian and viewed as a model to developers, planners, 7 reptile survey in 1994. Once prevalent in and researchers,” says Bruce Hodgdon of the FIRE SPARKS PRAIRIE DuPage (and much of the region), these Forest Preserve District. It was only last October that a series of domed-shell, yellow-throated creatures have wildfires burned alongside a stretch of the —Nicole Kamins lost much of their original wetland habitat. Chicago and Northwestern railroad in Moreover, skunks and raccoons prey heavily Barrington, but already a variety of prairie 0 WILD TURKEY (the bird) upon turtle eggs in today’s small preserves and savanna plants have taken advantage of Three Thorn Creek Audubon birders had and adult turtles are often run over on the them. Since 1850, the easement of the an exciting morning on June 15 while sur - highways while searching for mates. railway has sheltered native plants from veying breeding birds for the Bird “We feel that we can offset these prob - farming and grazing. This right-of-way con - Conservation Network Survey ‘98. While lems by giving young turtles a head start that tinued to be burnt regularly, by design or walking a trail towards the Boy Scout Camp avoids some predation, and through proper accident, as late as the 1960s, maintaining in Cook County’s Zanders Woods, they saw a habitat management,” said District Animal now-rare prairie and even rarer open savanna large shape in a tree. At first they thought it Ecologist Dan Ludwig. Rearing young turtles ecosystems alongside the tracks. The 1997 was a hawk or a turkey vulture, until birder in captivity also accelerates their growth so fire, sparked by a faulty train wheel, ignited Daniela Herman spotted the identifying blue that they begin reproducing sooner than the dry patches of prairie remnant; it cleared on the head and light-colored legs of a wild usual 13 to 18 years. As part of the program, brush and encouraged the growth of several turkey before it flew off into the woods. “We the District’s Department of Grounds and prairie and savanna species, including such were so excited to see such an unusual sight,” Resources is writing a Blanding’s turtle rarities as veiny pea and Leiberg’s panic grass. said Herman. It is not unusual to find wild recovery plan with the assistance of geneti - Tom Vanderpoel, a member of Barrington’s turkeys in savannas, and this is a restored oak cists and nutritionists from Brookfield Zoo Citizens for Conservation, calls the increase savanna, but wild turkeys have not been and Blanding’s turtle experts from the in plant diversity recorded in Cook County since 1878, and United States and Canada. “This is the first “tremendous,” and con - were considered extirpated from the state by time the Zoo has applied its population via - siders the site “one of our 1900, according to Chicago Area Birds . In bility analysis model, used for endangered best examples” of the recent decades, wild turkeys—distinguished species conservation planning around the prairie-savanna con - from their domestic cousins by their dark world, to a local threatened population,” said tinuum. Unfortunately, rather than white tail tips—have been Tim Sullivan, Chair of Conservation Biology the unmanaged site has released in various parts of rural Illinois to LAKE 6 at Brookfield Zoo. “We hope this can be a MICHIGAN severe problems with re-establish the turkey as a game bird. “This model for how to develop species manage - aggressive species and will is indeed a significant sighting,” said the ment plans for other priority species in gradually become Illinois Ornithological Society’s Eric Walters. Chicago Wilderness.” “There have been only a handful of sightings Little Calumet degraded unless an agree - ment with the railroad —Mark Sheehy of these birds in the wild in northeastern concerning management Illinois since they disappeared, and none that can be reached. In the 9 FAIRWAY FROGS I know of in Cook County.” meantime, Vanderpoel The gray treefrog never expected to be collects seed from the site fussed over by so many agencies. But a novel Stories compiled by Elizabeth Sanders with and continues to study it. collaborative effort (by the Forest Preserve help this issue from Dilip Das, Dale Endquist, District of Will County, the Will County — Bridget Illian Marianne Hahn, Tim Houston, Wes Serafin, Land Use Department, the USDA Natural and Fred Szarka. Resources Conservation Services, and

S UMMER 1998 27 News of the wild

IS HERBICIDE GOOD? repeated applications. The following year a Fellow of The Royal Society in his native There is an herbicide called Poast they sprayed again—it seemed to be slowly England. Election to The Royal Society is (rhymes with toast) which has a bad reputa - working—and then a fourth time. considered one of the high honors in the sci - tion with two groups of people. Some land This year that treated strip is largely entific world. (Founded in 1660, it has managers who use herbicides regularly think empty of the killer grass. But more important included such luminaries as Isaac Newton.) Poast is too weak to bother with. Then there is what has returned. “Tussock sedges every - Crane’s research concerns the origin and are other folks who believe that all herbi - where,” says Keibler. “Turk’s cap lilies, swamp early evolution of angiosperms—flowering cides are the work of the Devil, and this milkweed, and, although we can hardly plants—and their massive ecological impact one’s no better. believe it ourselves, five handsome healthy on plant and animal life throughout the Bob and Betty Coffin of orchids.” world. Long Grove are the proud This herbicide will probably continue to Dr. George Rabb, director of The owners of a wetland. Years have a bad reputation with some people. Brookfield Zoo since 1976, has also served as ago when they learned that “But,” says Steve Byers, “if you’re facing reed Chair of the World Conservation Union’s the area behind their house canary grass and you’re trying to rescue an (IUCN) Species Survival Commission, an was habitat for the endan - ancient natural community, you might want organization that is devoted to, well, saving gered prairie white-fringed to check it out.” the earth’s species. In recognition of his con - orchid, they legally and per - tributions to world conservation, Rabb manently dedicated their 10 received the Silver Medal from the Royal acres as an Illinois Nature Zoological Society of London and the service Preserve. Now it’s protected award in 1998 from the Society for for all time, they thought. Conservation Biology. But one plant that had sneaked into the Coffin’s TRAIL OF HISTORY marsh was reed canary grass. This highly-popular annual living history P

This invasive and aggressive H event portrays the interrelationship between O T species (there’s debate about O nature, people, and cultural development. :

J O

how native it is) often S Interpreters from across the country demon - E P H

becomes so dense as to elimi - K strate life as it was from 1670 and 1850 in A Y

nate most other plants. N the former Northwest territory, which E Gradually, the Coffins encompassed present-day Illinois, Wisconsin, noticed that larger and larger BIG BUGS INVADE CHICAGO Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and portions of portions of the preserve were These invaders have no intention of Minnesota. losing the rich diversity of taking over—in fact, they’ll be gone by Date: Saturday, October 17 native species that were theo - October 25. They are dinosaur-sized insect and Sunday, October 18 retically preserved there. sculptures made from trees, dried branches, Time: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Steve Byers of the Illinois roots, vines, and bark by New York artist Location: Glacial Park, McHenry County Nature Preserves Commission recommended David Rogers. They’ve descended, tem - Conservation District’s largest and most control of the reed canary grass. But how? porarily, at the Chicago Botanic Garden. diverse natural area. 6512 Harts Road in Land stewards have long used herbicides, The creatures include three 700-lb. ants, Ringwood, IL. considering them necessary evils when all three ladybugs, two dragonflies, a butterfly, Information: (815) 678-4431 else fails. But here the dreaded grass was assassin bug, praying mantis, grasshopper, spreading among all the rare sedge meadow beetle, earwig, and spider (complete with NEIGHBORS SUPPORT species the Coffins sought to conserve. 15-foot web). A variety of educational BARTLETT WOODS Enter Poast. This is a weak and selective activities, exhibits, and programs accom - Judy Piszczek and Mary Ellen Knuth herbicide. It has no observable effect on wild - pany the bugs. The “Bigness of Bugs” share their neighborhood with migratory flowers, or even on the grasses’ close relatives features big facts about these small crea - birds, frogs, foxes, muskrats, and snakes. like rushes and sedges. It’s used to kill grass, tures as well as close-up insect portraits by Last December, they also noticed workmen but there was little information about its Chicago photographer James Rowan. taking soil samples. They phoned Bartlett effectiveness in complex native ecosystems. Cultural treasures from the Field Museum village hall and found out that the “Wendt “This entire population of endangered of Natural History show how insects have farm” —88.4 acres including 36 acres of orchids and the diverse ecosystem that sup - inspired people. Also offered are story - wetlands—was under contract to a devel - ported it were definitely in danger of being telling and informal discussions for children oper with plans to build 74 single-family completely lost,” says June Keibler, head of and adult classes about how insects can luxury homes. the Orchid Recovery Project sponsored by benefit lawn and garden. “I’ve seen a great egret landing here,” said the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and The Time: 8:00 a.m.– sunset daily Piszczek. “He probably had a nest in the wet - Nature Conservancy (see CW news, Fall Place: Chicago Botanic Garden lands. I see that and think, let’s not lose all 1997). “So all things considered, it seemed 1000 Lake Cook Road this.” So she and Knuth got on the phone. worth a try.” Glencoe What they learned prompted them to alert Keibler and the Coffins chose a strip 30' Admission: Free; parking is $5/weekdays and their neighbors. wide by 100' long, in the heart of the worst $6/weekends The Wendt property wetlands are desig - reed canary infestation. They sprayed it with Information: (847) 835-5440 nated “critical” by the DuPage County Poast, saw little results, waited a few weeks, Department of Environmental Concern and, and sprayed the whole patch again. This was CRANE AND RABB HONORED as such, any development would be moni - in accord with the EPA-approved directions Dr. Peter Crane (CW Winter ‘98), paleo- tored closely. To accommodate the for the herbicide. Because of its comparative botanist and Vice President for Academic additional runoff that occurs from stripping weakness, Poast is effective only with Affairs at the Field Museum, has been named topsoil for homes, the developer would have

28 C HICAGO W ILDERNESS Insects have lived on the earth for about 350 million years, compared with less than two million for humans. Butterflies originated between 50 and 100 million years ago. As “citizen scientists” study Spears Woods, volunteer m o r butterfly monitor Deb Petro takes time out to help bud - t s g n

E ding lepidopterist Alanna Sluis (10) catch a cabbage n e r a white—and proto lepidopterist Dave Walder (5) identify K

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t a fritillary. Also leading the group are Spears Woods o h P steward Steve Bubulka and Wolf Road Prairie volunteer Neil McDermott.

to establish a conservancy area that includes requested by the Bartlett trustees, revealed marsh, and woodland all together,” said enlarging the wetland acreage to 42.2 acres. that the Wendt property serves as a signifi - Janice Roehll, Land Acquisition Manager for The proposed development would require cant wildlife corridor between Wayne Grove the Forest Preserve District. extending existing streets and building new and the Sunrise Lake Outdoor Education The neighbors had originally hoped only ones on 1.9 acres of the wetland. The impact Center. to ensure responsible development. Now of increased traffic and road chemicals on Piszczek and Knuth discovered that the Piszczek says, “I can see this area becoming wildlife raised questions from trustees and a Forest Preserve District of DuPage County the heart of Bartlett, with trails and a nature standing-room only crowd of neighbors has begun identifying and acquiring key center.” attending a Village of Bartlett board meeting parcels as result of a $75 million bond refer - But on July 8, negotiations at a standstill, on January 20. The developer, Dartmoor endum that passed last November. They felt the Forest Preserve District filed papers to Homes based in Hoffman Estates, requested the location and quality of the Wendt prop - condemn the land for conservation. That a variety of zoning variances. erty would complement the County’s land same day, 30 minutes earlier, the Village of The Illinois Department of Natural preservation goals. In hopes of protecting the Bartlett supported the developer by filing to Resources requires a 50-foot conservation open spaces they had sought in moving to condemn parts of the woodland for streets easement from the edge of a wetland. The Bartlett, neighbors wrote the Forest Preserve and sewers. “The citizens of Bartlett brought proposed development includes this 50 feet District to encourage the purchase of the us a property, that through the process of as part of the new homes’ backyards with property. evaluation came out at the very top of our building restrictions. Neighbors feared that In March, Piszczek and Knuth submitted a list as environmentally valuable,” com - this design, coupled with a requested vari - petition with 533 signatures requesting that mented Forest Preserve District ance in side and front yard size to the Bartlett Village Board endorse the Commissioner Linda Kurzawa. “The Village’s accommodate larger homes, would change District’s purchase of the Wendt property. On proposed east-west street connection requires the character of the area entirely and dis - May 19, the Forest Preserve Board of removing a vast number of trees out of the place wildlife as well. At the Village Commissioners approved the acquisition of woodland. Roads and sewers are incompatible meeting, a resident and volunteer steward this property, more than doubling Wayne with why we sought to aquire this property.” stated that the adjacent Wayne Grove Forest Grove Forest Preserve. “This is the highest News of the Wild will follow this story in Preserve is home to animals on the Illinois quality parcel in District 6 that we’re consid - future issues. Endangered Species list. A subsequent study, ering for acquisition. It combines wetland, —Alison Carney Brown

S UMMER 1998 29 Guest essay Encountering a Prairie by Verie Sandborg

traveled a long way in life until I came to a prairie. IPerhaps there were some prairie patches in southwestern Michigan where I grew up—or the Chicago suburbs I lived in after college. But no one ever told me about them. Though I learned the geography of faraway places, there was no mention of prairie in any of my schooling from kindergarten through a master’s degree. I enjoyed nature and traveled to see mountains, seashores, caves, forests, rock formations, lakes. I didn’t meet any prairies there. While I knew the value of faraway rainforests through television, I never saw a Nature or National Geographic television program on prairies, the natural heritage of this area. Prairies were not part of my roles as a housewife, single parent raising two children, and as a professional environ - mental manager. The culture I had lived in had such little pride and knowledge of its natural heritage that it had been unable to give itself, including me, a prairie experience. I first walked a prairie in August 1990 when I was in my fifties. I had been contributing to The Nature Conservancy for several years and decided to take the Markham Prairie walk they offered members. The guide told us that the mis - fortune of the Depression had saved the Markham Prairie from the development which surrounds it and that people had discarded trash on it for years. It was a hot day. Walking along trying to hear what the guide said, I distractedly waved and slapped at the mosquitoes attacking me from a nearby ditch. There were no defined paths on the prairie, and we were enveloped by the tall grasses and flowers. Being inside of nature instead of on the outskirts was a new, multi-sen - sory experience for me, which my conscious mind could not digest. Outwardly, I was sweating and slapping and pushing grass out of my face, not a promising first encounter. But at another level, only realized in retro - spect, I liked being close to nature. inal experience. It awakened me to the joy of prairies and Not knowing anything of prairies, I had no knowledge ignited a passion that would determine my path in the to build on. I didn’t learn a lot on that first prairie walk. I years since then. Trying to make up for lost time, for not did learn that a tall, rose-pink, spiked flower was com - seeing prairie flowers in bloom more than half my life, I monly called a blazing star and that its flowers bloomed have walked that path with ardor. I have taken nature from the top down instead of from the bottom up. Shortly hikes and naturalist classes. I have poked around in wild- thereafter, I felt proud of myself when I could identify a looking places searching for evidence of prairies. Soon I blazing star in a bouquet at a funeral I attended. But I also recognized a common thread among prairies in our area. wondered why they were in a florist’s bouquet and not in While there were patches of virgin prairie, there were no local gardens when they were native to the midwest? pristine prairies. They all seem to have been degraded, if Why didn’t I know about these beautiful flowers sooner? not destroyed. Functionally on the edge of extinction, The other thing I remember is touching a green snake, the remaining prairie remnants are all in some state of a resident of the prairie. One of the guides was an her - rescue, restoration, or reconstruction. petologist. He had brought a green snake and let us I have read books and written letters to government offi - touch it. He coaxed us out of our deep fear of snakes by cials and newspapers concerning natural areas. I became a telling us that touching the brilliant neon green snake volunteer worker at two local prairies, Liberty Prairie in would be a sensuous experience. I was intrigued by that. Grayslake and Buffalo Grove Prairie in Buffalo Grove. He was right: the snake did feel good. Outraged that it took me more than half a century to dis - Like Eve interacting with the snake in the Garden of cover a prairie, the natural heritage of the areas where I’ve Eden, meeting that snake in a prairie was for me a sem - lived my whole life, I am determined that prairies should

30 C HICAGO W ILDERNESS I L L U S T R A T I O N : H e i d i

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Like the long, long roots of many prairie plants, I have become t i t u t e happily rooted in a wonderful place, Chicago Wilderness. f o r

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—Verie Sandborg 8 .

( 6 3 0 )

8 3 2 - 8 3 2 2 thrive. I am determined that today’s children can experi - midwest. The invention of the steel plow enabled settlers ence the prairie many times before they are 50. to break through the thick prairie sod and to plant crops. Prairies rapidly became this country’s breadbasket to feed hat the prairie tourist learns is that prairies are excit - an expanding country, to feed the world. Despite this Wing places—a true secret garden—rich with diversity, tremendous contribution prairies have made to human alive in the rhythm of the seasons. Experience the prairie history, we are culturally illiterate about them. in June and bask in the cream colors of wild indigo. As I have come to know prairies, the natural heritage Experience it a few weeks later dressed in yellow and pink of this region, I have come to love this place where as the grasses start to rise. Then, by August, you’re in it I live. Before, I always had an itch to travel and see the instead of over it, turkey-foot grass over your head and natural wonders of faraway places. I accepted the harsh ladies’ tresses orchids at your feet. Charles Darwin assessment people gave the northeastern Illinois terrain. notwithstanding, prairies are a testament not so much to Like others, I called our landscape flat and boring and, survival of the fittest but to harmony of the diverse. And in doing so felt a low self-esteem for living here. As I’ve as such, they are models to human organizations. become familiar with prairies, I realize that whatever Many midwestern towns have an historical museum boredom exists in our landscapes is recent and unneces - depicting the lives of their settlers. Few, however, have a sary. In learning the inner and outer stories of prairies, living museum of the area’s natural heritage. This is par - I find I don’t want to go away or I may miss the bloom ticularly strange considering how tallgrass prairies have of butterflyweed or the seeding of big bluestem. Like the supported human advancement. The decay of the roots long, long roots of many prairie plants, I have become of prairie plants over millennia built the black soil of the happily rooted in a wonderful place, Chicago Wilderness.

S UMMER 1998 31 Reading pictures

Stroking

he three species in this photo are engaged in an ancient plant species that provide them with special services. When Tritual. The camouflaged caterpillar, as it eats rare flow - ants were experimentally removed from certain other plant ers, is attended by ants. Soon the ant on the back of the species, the plants were consumed utterly by hordes of her - pink caterpillar will begin to stroke it. Something wonder - bivores the ants had fended off. ful is in process. This caterpillar is the larva of the silvery blue—a but - The fat caterpillar would tempt many terfly thought extinct in Illinois until the an insect predator, were it not for the ants 1980s. At that time, interest in re-discov - that guard it. Nice ants, huh? Yet these are ering the savanna inspired biologists to also selfish ants, perhaps even addicted look in new places. Where botanists found ants. They softly brush that larval body remnant populations of savanna flora, with their antennae, they caress it, and it ornithologists found rare birds, mycologists reciprocates by producing droplets of a found rare mushrooms, and lepidopterists fluid that the attendants devour greedily. found rare butterflies. Yes, an intimate relationship proceeds in The silvery blue was rediscovered by Ron these rare flowers. Panzer at Wadsworth Savanna, a site first Many of the gossamer-winged butter - identified by botanists for its rare plants, flies—the coppers, the blues, the like the veiny pea which the rare caterpillar hairstreaks—have co-evolved with certain was busily eating. The Lake County Forest ants to supply each others’ needs. The but - Preserve District bought the land, and terfly caterpillar makes substances that are highly restoration management began. sought-after by the ant, and the ants ward off parasites and That’s conservation. Without it we lose species, but predators that would otherwise eat the future butterfly. “species loss” sounds so thin. What’s really lost is millions When full and fat, the caterpillar may head down into the of thriving lives. The fragrances, the bird calls overhead, thick of the ant’s underground nest to pupate, overwinter, the stroking. Millions of years of evolution thrive in and emerge as a butterfly the following spring. Chicago Wilderness. Conservation saves the ancient What does the plant get out of this? Perhaps nothing, drama, and keeps its life fresh with ours. but perhaps the ants protect it too. Ants do protect many Photos by Ron Panzer. Words by Stephen Packard.

32 C HICAGO W ILDERNESS More than a thousand kinds of insects occur in an average sized backyard. Their populations may number many millions per acre. CHICAGO WILDERNESS MEMBERS: Lake Michigan Federation Lincoln Park Zoo Long Grove Park District Brookfield Zoo Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation Butterfield Creek Steering Committee McHenry County Conservation District Calumet Ecological Park Association Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago Campton Historic Agricultural Lands, Inc. Morton Arboretum Canal Corridor Association The Nature Conservancy Chicago Academy of Sciences No. Cook County Soil & Water Conservation District Chicago Botanic Garden Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission Chicago Ornithological Society Openlands Project Chicago Park District Prairie Woods Audubon Society Citizens for Conservation Save the Prairie Society City of Chicago, Department of Environment Schaumburg Park District A hummingbird moth hovers The Conservation Foundation John G. Shedd Aquarium near milkweed at the Conservation Research Institute Shirley Heinze Environmental Fund Schulenberg Prairie at the The Field Museum Sierra Club, Illinois Chapter Morton Arboretum. Forest Preserve District of Cook County St. Charles Park District Forest Preserve District of DuPage County Sustain, The Environmental Information Group Photo: Karen Engstrom Forest Preserve District of Kane County Thorn Creek Audubon Society Forest Preserve District of Will County Urban Resources Partnership Fort Dearborn Chapter, Illinois Audubon Society US Army Corps of Engineers, Chicago District Friends of the Chicago River US Dept. of Energy, Argonne National Laboratory Friends of the Parks US Dept. of Energy, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory The Grove National Historic Landmark US Environmental Protection Agency, Region 5 Hammond Environmental Education Center US EPA Great Lakes National Program Office Illinois Department of Natural Resources USDA Forest Service Illinois Natural History Survey USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Illinois Nature Preserves Commission USDI Fish & Wildlife Service Indiana University Northwest USDI National Park Service Lake County Forest Preserves The Wetlands Initiative Lake Co. Stormwater Management Commission Wild Ones Natural Landscapers, Ltd.

S UMMER 1998 33 about the photo

BULK RATE U.S. POSTAGE PAID Permit No. 16 Chicago New Richmond , WI WILDERNES S 54017 P. O. Box 268 Downers Grove, Illinois 60515-0268