Tuggle's agency has contributed more than $620,000 to support Chicago Wilderness projects, including habitat restoration, publication of the Atlas of Biodiversity, and scientific research. Dr. Tuggle had been the Chicago Field Office supervisor of the Fish & Wildlife Service since its inception in 1991.

New Chair and Vice Chair for Biodiversity Council
At a meeting on September 5, the members of the Chicago Region Biodiversity Council selected Phillip D. Peters, executive director of the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission, to serve as chair of the Council and John Rogner, Acting Field Supervisor with the US Fish & Wildlife Service, Chicago Field Office, as vice chair.

No Cereal Box Tops Needed — Claim Your Free Atlas Now!
In late summer, the Chicago Region Biodiversity Council issued Chicago Wilderness, An Atlas of Biodiversity, a 64-page, full-color book describing the rare and biologically rich natural communities of the region — prairies, oak savannas, woodlands, marshes, fens, and sedge meadows. An Atlas of Biodiversity presents the geology, history, and ecology of the region with numerous maps and photographs to help tell the tale.

The Atlas was written by Jerry Sullivan, now on the staff of the Cook County Forest Preserve District, with assistance from the Chicago Wilderness science team. For a free copy, pick up an order postcard at Chicago Wilderness member institutions, such as the Brookfield or Lincoln Park Zoo, the Field Museum, the Chicago Botanic Garden, and the Morton Arboretum. For a full listing of members — or to preview the Atlas — check out the Chicago Wilderness Web site at www.chicagowilderness.org.

Newspapers In Education
In late October, the Chicago Tribune published a special insert on local biodiversity for the approximately 11,000 students in grades 5-9 enrolled in the Newspaper in Education program. The insert is a joint project of the Chicago Wilderness Education and Outreach team and the Tribune. Based on the natural and geological history content of the Chicago Wilderness Atlas of Biodiversity, the insert includes 10-12 activities and field trip suggestions to Chicago Wilderness sites. "Through this unique partnership with the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Wilderness has a great opportunity to reach and educate a very large audience," said team member Suzanne Saric, an environmental educator with the US Environmental Protection Agency. "This educational piece on local biodiversity will help teachers and students know where to go for some real-life investigation." Participating classrooms also received a poster depicting Chicago Wilderness and a copy of the Atlas of Biodiversity. Chicago Wilderness partner institutions are offering workshops for local teachers on using the supplement and Atlas in their classrooms.

Update on Land Acquisition in Lake County
The Lake County Forest Preserves have been growing, twice as much as expected. In November 1993, voters approved a $30 million bond referendum, with $20 million earmarked for land acquisition, thanks to help from The Nature Conservancy of Illinois and a broad coalition of business, development, conservation, and community organizations. At that time, Forest Preserve officials estimated that the $20 million would buy about 1,000 acres.

Donations, grants, and federal legislation have allowed the District to leverage these bond dollars. Thus, it has acquired 1,544 acres to date and has commitments to purchase 215 acres with remaining funds.

In September, the District Board of Commissioners purchased 533 acres of woods, wetlands, and farmland in western Lake County for $6.1 million, the largest single acquisition since 1990. The completed acquisitions include additions to existing preserves such as Fox River, Grassy Lake, Lakewood, Middlefork Savanna, and Ryerson Woods, and new sites such as Fort Sheridan and Grainger Woods.

At present, the District owns approximately 35 acres per 1,000 residents, the highest among Chicago-area forest preserve districts. However, Lake County's population is quickly approaching 600,000 and is expected to exceed 770,00 by the year 2020. Since the District's Board of Commissioners has adopted a goal of 40 acres per 1,000 residents in Lake County, it is now considering options for funding future acquisitions.

Miracle Grow
"O my God, that's it!" Liz Aicher yelled as she surveyed a forest preserve site where she has served as a volunteer steward in Kane County. It was July 4, the day Aicher set aside each year to look for the rare prairie white-fringed orchid. Since 1993, the US Fish & Wildlife Service has been working with volunteers and staff to assist this federally threatened species in its recovery. (Research botanist Marlin Bowles of the Morton Arboretum wrote the draft recovery plan.)

The Orchid Recovery Project selected a number of sites where these plants had either been known to exist in the past or where the conditions, such as having sufficient moisture in spring and fall, were deemed suitable for them. Aicher's site was one of 28 throughout northeastern Illinois where seeds from plants that had been hand-pollinated were distributed. "A single orchid produces thousands of seeds," explains June Keibler, who coordinated close to 60 volunteers assisting with the recovery project. They're just like dust."

In 1993, working at two separate portions of her site marked off as transects, Aicher carefully scraped the ground to clear away vegetation, raked in the precious orchid seeds, and covered them up again. Each year thereafter, on July 4th, she carefully examined the site to see if any plants had appeared, but none had. This year, Aicher recalls, "My husband called me over to look at a plant because he had never seen the orchid and I came over and said, ŒNo, that's not it.' I turned around to go back to the area I was surveying and there it was, waving at me in full flower!"

Following that discovery, Aicher found two more flowering orchids on her site, including one that had been partially eaten by deer. "I'd never seen one in person before," she said excitedly, "but it looked just like its picture."

Plant Bandits
Plant bandits were the last thing on Bonnie Major's mind. It seemed like after years of work, the prairies along the Old Plank Road Trail which stretches from Park Forest to Joliet were finally safe. In July, the section from Cicero Ave. to Central and sections from Central to Ridgeland were dedicated as Illinois Nature Preserves, thus affording additional protection to some of the finest original prairie land left in the state.

But last May, as Major took a bike ride along the Trail with her young granddaughter, she observed two men with buckets digging up plants. "I was horrified," she said. "I couldn't believe my eyes."

"Desist! Illegal!" Major cried, but the men could not speak English. Instead they kept digging up the blooming plants — shooting stars and hoary puccoons.

Major turned around to call the police from a nearby store. When she was almost out of sight, a van pulled up bearing a company logo on its door. The laborers jumped in and the truck vanished — before Major could make out the name.

Two weeks later, stopping by the Trail on her way home from work to pick up trash and debris along the section from Cicero to I-57, Major saw a young cyclist ride by with a bucket full of plants hanging from his handlebar. A week after that, a Cook County naturalist spotted a man loading a bucket full of prairie plants into his van.

After 14 years of working as a volunteer steward to protect and restore this site, Bonnie Major wasn't willing to let poachers carry off valuable native plants without a fight. She called the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the Matteson Public Works Department; they agreed to post signs identifying the area as an Illinois Nature Preserve (where poaching is a felony with a $10,000 maximum fine). She spoke with conservation officers and the Rich Township supervisor. She testified before the Township Board. She and other volunteers spent time along the trail talking with hundreds of people and urging anyone with evidence of plant poaching to bring it to authorities. (And, in August, she found time to marry fellow steward Ray Morrow, whom she had met at the Plank Road prairie in 1983.)

The area seems more secure now, Major said, but it was a close call. She plans to stay on the lookout, protecting the prairie from poachers.