Chicago EXPLORING NATURE & CULTURE WILDERNESSWINTER 1999 $3.95 CITIZEN SCIENTISTS • THE FOREST PRESERVES’ ROCKY START What is Chicago Wilderness? Chicago Wilderness is some of the finest and most significant 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 unprece - dented alliance of 76 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 quarterly magazine that cele - brates the rich biodiversity of this region and tells the inspiring stories of the people and organizations work - ing to heal and protect local nature. CHICAGO WILDERNESS A Regional Nature Reserve Friends of Nature he stirring and a cautionary tale of the battle to estab - wildflowers were disappearing from sites, not because they Tlish the Forest Preserve District of Cook County begins were being plucked but because their habitat was suffering. on page 4. When Dwight Perkins and Jens Jensen set about Once open areas, pleasant for strolling, picnicking or pro - saving “natural park lands” for the benefit of people, they viding respite for the eye, were gradually becoming choked did not know these holdings with invasive brush. would become refugia for rare and Yet ours is a continuing history endangered species, harboring bio - of civic pride and action on diversity of global conservation behalf of nature. Soon all the significance. region’s counties would have pre - They were establishing culture. serve districts of various kinds. Along with their friend and col - The spirit of Perkins, Jensen, May league Jane Addams, they were Watts, and others lives on in the concerned for the health and wel - efforts to restore natural areas and fare of urban residents—the wage in the collaborative conservation earners, as they put it—who initiatives of Chicago Wilderness. deserved, in their view, pleasant Today, I suspect, we hallow natural areas to enjoy, find inspi - nature no less than Perkins, ration, and cultivate a bond with Jensen, and Watts, but, perhaps, the natural heritage of the region. we respect nature more. We have At the time, they thought pro - L learned what a challenge it is not a n t e r tecting and preserving nature n only to protect tracts of land, but s l i d meant simply saving land from e also to preserve healthy com - : F o r development. Everyone did. e plexes of species—the whole s t P r The new Forest Preserve Dis - e communities called marshes, s e r v e trict purchased its first land, 500 prairies, savannas and woods— D i s t r i acres of Deer Grove, on June 25, c that constitute our native t o f 1916. They called it a “preserve,” C landscape. o o k C campaigned in sometimes charm - o Those among us today who u n t ing ways to protect its nature, put y have the fortitude, vision, and out fires, and essentially left the persistence of the forest preserve lands alone. (The young lady appearing on the back cover of founders will be the conservation heroes generations hence. this issue was part of an early campaign to educate visitors These are the people of Chicago Wilderness, the citizen O P not to pick the wildflowers.) scientists profiled in this issue, the leaders of organizations P O S But these quaint values were not enough. Many of the large and small (such as Charlotte and Herbert Read and I T E places Perkins fought so hard to preserve became less attrac - Dr. George Rabb, pp. 21-23), and not least of all, you, our : R o tive over the years, to both nature and people. Woodland readers. Bless you—and keep the faith. b C u r t i s / T h Debra Shore e E a EDITOR r l y B i r d e r W INTER 1999 P h o t o : F o r e s t P r CONTENTS e s e r v e D i s t r i c t o f C FEATURES o o k C o 4 u n t y TO PRESERVE AND PROTECT: The Origins of the Forest Preserves by Stephen F. Christy, Jr. 4 The noble and little-known history of the nation’s first forest preserve district. THE AMATEUR AND THE PRO: Science at the Grass Roots by Sheryl DeVore . 9 P Citizen scientists—noodling around in nature and making a real h o t o : contribution. K a t h y R i c h l a 9 n d D E PA RTMENTS Into the Wild. 13 Where to go. What to do. How to help. P h o t Natural Events Calendar. o : M o r t o Meet Your Neighbors . 22 n A r b Meet the sleek elusive mink. Meet Charlotte and Herb Read, o r e t u savers of the dunes. Meet Dr. George Rabb, conservation m A r 24 c ambassador from the Brookfield Zoo. h i v e s Local Heroes: Remembering May Watts . 24 She signed her poems “Face the Wind.” She inspired legions of nature lovers. Get to know a local hero. Chicago News from Chicago Wilderness . 26 WILDERNES S Volume II, Number 2 BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Return of a Native: Whooping Big Bird Story . 28 President : Dr. George Rabb Vice-President : Dan Griffin Reading Pictures . 32 Secretary : Laura Gates The Unseen. Treasurer : Barbara Whitney Carr Jerry Adelmann, Laura Hohnhold, John Rogner, Ron Wolk EDITOR . Debra Shore SENIOR EDITOR . Stephen Packard ASSISTANT EDITORS . Sheryl De Vore . Chris Howes NEWS EDITOR . Elizabeth Sanders 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 WILDER - NESS , 9232 Avers Ave, Evanston, IL 60203. (847) 677- 2470. e-mail: [email protected] Unsolicited manuscripts cannot be returned without a self-addressed stamped enve - lope. Chicago WILDERNESS is printed on recycled paper and should be passed around from friend to friend. Chicago ABOVE AND COVER: Old squaw ducks can be seen, sometimes by the hundreds, from the bluffs WILDERNESS is endorsed by the Chicago Region Biodi - overlooking Lake Michigan. Before they return to the Arctic to enjoy breeding, their black and white versity Council. The opinions expressed in these pages, pattern changes dramatically, nearly reversing intelf (see cover). Photo above by Jim Flynn/Root however, are the authors’ own. © by Chicago Wilderness Resources. Cover photo by Art Morris/Birds as Art. Magazine , Inc. OPPOSITE: Bur oak presides over snowy savanna along Flint Creek near Barrington, Illinois. ISSN 1097-8917. Postmaster, address service requested to Photo by Donna Lee. Chicago WILDERNESS , PO Box 268, Downers Grove, IL 60515-0268. W INTER 1999 All rights reserved. 3 To Preserve and Protect… by Stephen F. Christy, Jr. Do Forest Preserves face challenges today? Just look at what they overcame to get started. ur northeastern Illinois forest preserves total more magnificent civic accomplishment came about largely than 100,000 acres and represent the largest tract through the determined efforts of two great Chicagoans: Oof locally-owned public conservation land in the the architect Dwight Perkins (1867-1941), best remem - nation. Their benefits for our environment, recreation and bered today for his visionary designs of many of Chicago’s education are incalculable, and they preserve much of public schools, and the landscape architect Jens Jensen Chicago’s natural charm which, without their existence, (1860-1951), nationally known for his park designs in would certainly have been lost to the area’s growth. Chicago and other cities and a life-long champion of con - Of the millions of users of our Forest Preserves today few serving America’s landscape. Perkins was level-headed, would believe it took more than 20 years for the dream of thorough, and methodical, while Jensen was an outspoken, the preservation of these lands to become a reality. This emotional, and charismatic leader. Together they made a 4 C HICAGO W ILDERNESS good team for the long work ahead. As early as 1894 Jensen, from his frequent local wander - PERKINS: ings, had sketched a map of lands then far-distant from level-headed, Chicago that he felt should be preserved for future genera - tions. Perkins himself was constantly urging people to look thorough, ahead on Chicago’s growth, astounding people in 1902 by and methodical; claiming: “Chicago will be a city of 10,000,000 inhabitants within the next 50 years, and when we are planning for the city’s future we must take pains not to be so short-sighted as to overlook it. We have a right to dream — if we are wide awake when we do it.” JENSEN: In 1899 a civic group known as the Municipal Science outspoken, emotional, Club, of which Jensen and Perkins were members, began a study of Chicago’s current parks and playgrounds. The and charismatic… Club’s report led to the Chicago City Council establishing in 1901 a Special Park Commission having a membership of Jensen, Perkins, and other civic leaders as well as aldermen and park commissioners. The report they prepared said, “In the rapid growth of Chicago north, west, and south, thickly … a good team for the work ahead. settled communities are approaching natural park territory and other extensive open areas which are suitable park sites and could be improved without a great expenditure of money…before the rapid march of commercial interests and outer parks.