Fall 98 Cover F&B_ Fall 98 Cover F&B 12/24/15 9:45 AM Page 3 Chicago EXPLORING NATURE & CULTURE WFALILL 19D98 ERNES S FIRE AS A FRIEND • T HINKING LIKE A SEED Fall cov 02 - 12_ Fall cov 02 - 12 12/24/15 10:10 AM Page cov2 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. Fall cov 02 - 12_ Fall cov 02 - 12 12/24/15 10:10 AM Page 1 CHICAGO WILDERNESS A Regional Nature Reserve Keeping the Home Fires Burning or generations of us inculcated with the gospel according them, both by white men and by Indians—par accident; and Fto Smokey, setting fire to woods and prairies on purpose yet many more where it is voluntarily done for the purpose amounts to blasphemy. Yet those who love the land have of getting a fresh crop of grass, for the grazing of their horses, been wrestling with some new ideas about fire—new ideas and also for easier travelling during the next summer.” that are very old. Ancient Chicagua and the ancestral lands throughout It turns out that our native landscape was bathed by fire, the Midwest burned—and burned often. evolved under fire, thrived on fire. Only when we denied And now we burn again to save the nature that was and fire, through our civilizing intercession, did plants and ani - remains the heritage of this region. Even in the city we mals living in fire-dependent ecosystems themselves begin burn—carefully, under highly prescribed conditions, to be disappearing wholesale from sure—yet whoever would restore the land. As Alex Blumberg so them must torch our ancient ably points out in “Fire As a grasses and oak woodlands. Friend” (p. 4), prairies without The prospect confounds. fire are like rainforests without Burning today is counter- rain: an aberration, a sick and intuitive. Then the scientists dying thing. produce the data, and we learn Pages 4 and 8 of this issue the need to burn a prairie to are graced with the noble keep it healthy. Yes, I say to fire paintings of George Catlin (for as a friend, yes. which we are deeply indebted Chicago Wilderness itself is to the Gilcrease Museum of confounding. We humans have Tulsa, Oklahoma). Catlin was trammeled the landscape for O P an artist and hero. A young eons, shaping—and being shaped P O S lawyer in 1832, he one day dis - by—the living land. I T E posed of all his worldly The abiding, affirming vision : A m attachments, stocked up on of Chicago Wilderness is neither e r i c artist’s supplies, and embarked to trash humans as abusers, nor a n on a life beyond the frontier, to revere nature as something g o P l h d painting Native Americans o somehow untouched by the t f o i : n K c and their landscape, often as i hand of man. m h K o a the first Euro-American to visit r The abiding, affirming vision n p e l e a s a given tribe or watershed. / of Chicago Wilderness is a L n i f o e d “The prairies burning form T middle course, namely, that h d r o i u n g g some of the most beautiful humans and other species share a h t t h h e scenes that are to be witnessed home, that we can shape and be i L s e n t s l e in this country,” Catlin wrote, shaped by each other in mutually . P h “and also some of the most sub - beneficial ways. Our adventure, o t o lime. Every acre of these vast prairies (being covered for like Catlin’s, is one of discovery and change. And what we b y hundred and hundreds of miles, with a crop of grass, which learn may mean the difference between life and death for L e n dies and dries in the fall) burns over during the fall or early much of local nature.We learn and we reach out to friends M e s in the spring, leaving the ground of a black and doleful color. and neighbors with this welcoming message of restoration s i n e “There are many modes by which fire is communicated to and renewal. Yes, I say to Chicago Wilderness, yes. o / R o o t Debra Shore R e s EDITOR o u r c e s . F ALL 1998 Fall cov 02 - 12_ Fall cov 02 - 12 12/24/15 10:10 AM Page 2 Fall cov 02 - 12_ Fall cov 02 - 12 12/24/15 10:10 AM Page 3 P h o t o : K i m K CONTENTS a r p e l e s / L i f e T h r o u FEATURES g h t 4 h e L e n FIRE AS A FRIEND by Alex Blumberg . .4 s The archaeology and future of fire. And what about Bambi? And Thumper—and the catch-22 of the Karner blue? THINKING LIKE A SEED by Robyn Flakne . .10 P h o How a Swiss fellow invented velcro—and other seed surprises. t o : M a r y A . R o o t / R o o t R e D E PA RTMENTS s o 10 u r c e Into the Wild. .13 s Our guide to the best nature in the region—what to do and see, when to go, where to hike, bike, canoe, ride horses, watch birds, even find solitude. Plus listings of outdoor work parties. Working the Wilderness: Prairie Burn by Joe Neumann . .14 Observe a prescribed burn at Markham prairie, waterpack and all. Natural Events Calendar . .20 P What’s debuting on nature’s stage this season with tips for where to see, h o t o : hear, and find the natural wonders of Chicago Wilderness. C a r o l 23 F r e Meet Your Neighbors . .21 e m a Meet migrating hawks — broad-wings, Cooper’s, and ospreys soaring. n Meet Joan Meersman, model seed collector. Meet the prairie gentian, late-blooming beauty a.k.a blue blossom medicine. Chicago The Strange Case of the Vanishing Oak Woods . .24 WILDERNES S What happens to oak forests with—and without—fire? EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: A learning activity for family and friends. Barbara Whitney Carr, Chicago Botanic Garden Laura Gates, Field Museum News from Chicago Wilderness . .26 Dan Griffin, Forest Preserve District of DuPage County George Rabb, Brookfield Zoo Guest Essay . .30 EDITOR . Debra Shore First Metropolis of the Future by Jane Elder. Will the bold vision of SENIOR EDITOR . Stephen Packard Chicago Wilderness inspire the world’s first urban biosphere reserve? ASSISTANT EDITORS . Sheryl De Vore . Chris Howes Reading Pictures . .32 NEWS EDITOR . Elizabeth Sanders A bittersweet tale of good and evil. ART DIRECTOR . Liita Forsyth ASSISTANT DESIGNER . Terri Wymore EDITORIAL CONSULTANT . Bill Aldrich 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 COVER PHOTO : In the 14,000-acre wilds of manuscripts cannot be returned without a self-addressed Palos, Cook County Forest Preserves by Mike stamped envelope. Chicago WILDERNESS is printed on MacDonald. recycled paper and should be passed around from friend to friend. Chicago WILDERNESS is endorsed by the Chicago OPPOSITE: Autumn mist at Goose Lake Region Biodiversity Council. The opinions expressed in these pages, however, are the authors’ own. © by Chicago Prairie southwest of Joliet, with settler’s P h o Wilderness Magazine , Inc. t cabin on the horizon. By Ronald W. Kurowski. o : E r ISSN 1097-8917. Postmaster, address service requested to i c W , PO Box 268, Downers Grove, IL AT RIGHT: Rare bird stops by city park. a Chicago WILDERNESS l t e 60515-0268. r See page 26. s All rights reserved. F ALL 1998 3 Fall cov 02 - 12_ Fall cov 02 - 12 12/24/15 10:10 AM Page 4 Fire As Friend In the past two decades, scientific opinion has turned decidedly against the gospel according to Smokey. Scientists now understand that fire is, in fact, the norm. by Alex Blumberg wenty years ago, Jo Ellen Siddens would have been If the scene to the left calls to mind a cathedral, spacious locked up as an arsonist. Today I’m in the passenger and gently lit, the scene to the right seems more like a Tseat as Siddens, an ecologist with the DuPage warren, dark and claustrophobic. County Forest Preserve District, bumps her county-issue Twenty years ago the entire area looked like the tangle Dodge Caravan along a gravel access road in Waterfall to the right.