One Step Ahead Of The Bulldozers
Last spring, Bob LeFevre of Barrington-based Citizens for Conservation (CFC) heard of a soon-to-be-developed property in Lake Zurich that was home to yellow star grass (Hypoxis hirsuta), a dainty member of the amaryllis family. Tom Vanderpoel located the grass, whose bright stars had just bloomed, surrounding a bulldozer, brush cutter, and trucks. A quick conference with the equipment operator led to a rescue plan. The next day, CFC volunteers worked frantically because in more than a decade they had never encountered yellow star grass in such numbers (nurseries do not even offer the seed). They dug about 75 plugs, each containing a few yellow star grasses — plus the bonus of intermixed blue-green sedge, ideal for some of CFC's wet prairies.

"I've got an old beat-up truck I keep for prairie restoration," said Jerry Masino, a long-time volunteer. "We had short notice and we were just a few steps ahead of the bulldozers. That's the way it goes with progress." A rough estimate indicates that CFC volunteers brought as many as 300 of the little amaryllises, along with 500-600 sedges, to safe new homes at Grisby Prairie and Flint Creek Savanna. LeFevre says the plugs are doing very well, "It's virtually impossible to get these plants any other way. You can't get the seeds — once the flower is gone it's almost impossible to find them. These plants are protected now and we hope they'll spread." — Alison Carney Brown

Queen For A Day
"It was truly amazing! Thrilling!" Chicago WILDERNESS magazine contributor Carol Freeman couldn't decide if she was more surprised by finding the only queen butterfly seen in Illinois in over 70 years or by finding herself on the front page of the Sunday Chicago Tribune.

"I was excited that the Trib followed my story and expected to find it in the Style or Home and Garden sections," said the professional photographer and graphic designer. But the paper splayed it up front, thrilling Freeman and educating thousands about her "once-in-a-lifetime" find. "Whenever I'm in nature, I always see something I haven't seen before, and each time, I take as many pictures of it as I can," said Freeman. Then she goes home and uses the photos to identify the subject in question.

So when Freeman saw an unusual butterfly at the Chicago Botanic Garden on July 18, she followed it and snapped away. Puzzled, she called Chicago WILDERNESS editor Debra Shore, who referred her to Doug Taron, curator of biology at the Chicago Academy of Sciences. Taron confirmed that it was a queen butterfly (Danaus galippus), a relative of the monarch that lives in the far southern parts of the US and has been spotted in Illinois only once before — in 1928. Taron noted that this is not the only southern lepidopteran to make an unusual appearance in Illinois this year. Butterfly Monitoring Network volunteers spotted the funereal duskywing and white M hairstreak (which only gets to the Chicago region a couple times a century). Plus they saw unusually large numbers of firey skippers and buckeye butterflies (which migrate through this region, but normally not until mid- or late July).

While this may sound like evidence of global warming, the scientific community is not so sure. Chris Dietrich of the Illinois Natural History Survey and Taron point to many other possibilities explaining these unusual sightings: a mild winter can allow insects to overwinter farther north than usual; storm systems can blow insects out of their usual ranges; and shipments of nursery stock or even family cars can carry immatures and adults far from home. "It is a stretch to attribute this to global warming, unless we see many of these southern species for several years in a row," said Dietrich.

Land For Experiments
Calling all bug counters, soil scientists, prairie lovers, and others: If you're looking for experimental land space, Fermilab may be your new laboratory. Fermilab is the site of the Department of Energy's smallest (and least-polluted) National Environmental Research Park (NERP), and now NERP staffperson Rod Walton has announced that portions of Fermilab's 6800-acre site are being made available for scientific projects fitting NERP's mandate: to study the impact of human activities on the environment in various ecoregions.

Since the radical plan to create a prairie at the lab, was launched in 1975, Fermi has been a place of cutting-edge experimentation. For the last 15 years, Argonne National Laboratory scientists have studied soil dynamics of prairie restoration there. And now they're examining carbon sequestration in the soil to help understand the threat of global warming due to greenhouse gas accumulation. The Morton Arboretum has used the site to study re-introduction of the American hazel. Others have studied the dynamics of mammalian populations and plant resistance to insects.

Walton's wish-list for future research includes continuing prairie restoration experiments, as well as baseline surveys of the plant, insect, fish, and mammal populations. Professionals, volunteer groups, and citizen scientists with these or other interests are invited to submit proposals. For more information, contact Rod Walton at (630) 840-2565.

Millennium Grass
Imagine Cranberry Slough Steward Dennis Nyberg's surprise in July 1998, when he identified a small patch of narrow melic grass (Melica mutica) at this forest preserve site in southwestern Cook County. According to his dog-eared 1994 edition of Swink and Wilhelm's Plants of the Chicago Region, this rare woodland grass has not been documented in this region since 1899. It was considered locally extinct. Steward at the site for 16 years, Nyberg said, "The find indicates that once stewardship takes place, our native biodiversity has potential to flourish. I'm pretty sure that burning this area a couple times allowed this grass finally to flower — and be recognized."

A biology professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Nyberg received permission from the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission to collect seeds of the plants. A small portion of the seeds from each stalk, about 100 in all, now await the spring in cold storage. As the calendar turns 2000, they will be placed in a moist, sterile soil mix, and in April they will be brought to room temperature to germinate in trays at the UIC greenhouse. Next they will be potted individually and later planted in a garden partly shaded to simulate an oak woodland. After two-to-three years, the plants should produce seeds of their own. Nyberg then intends to seek permission from the Commission to plant the seeds at Cranberry Slough, expanding the existing population and establishing a second one. — Gerald D. Tang

Greening Chicago
Inch by inch, square foot by square foot, the City of Chicago is getting greener. In July the City Council passed a revised landscape ordinance requiring property owners and developers to take a bigger role in installing and maintaining larger planted areas. Parking lots are a prime focus for greening. The old ordinance required parking lots to be set back five feet; this one requires a seven-foot setback, meaning more unpaved land. Large "vehicular use areas" must be landscaped on a larger percentage of their total area.

Not only will these provisions improve the beauty of the Windy City, they will help manage storm water by increasing permeable surfaces, thereby reducing flooding and dependence on projects like Deep Tunnel. The ordinance will help air quality, too, as more vegetation is planted as part of landscaping requirements. To ensure that these positive effects continue, the revised law makes parkways, previously the maintenance responsibility of property owners for only 5 years, now their responsibility forever. Chicago is becoming, little by little, an even more hospitable place for plants, people, and other critters.

Audubon Acquisition
In its second major acquisition within months, the Illinois Audubon Society purchased in McHenry, County Black-crown Marsh in June. Located between Moraine Hills State Park and the Lake County border, the 80-acre marsh provides nesting habitat for the state-listed black-crowned night heron, black tern, sandhill crane, pied-billed grebe, common moorhen and yellow-headed blackbird. The endangered American bittern and great egret also use the area for foraging and breeding during the spring and summer.

The area was purchased with the help of $100,000 from CorLands, the non-profit land acquisition affiliate of Openlands Project. The Black-crown purchase is part of a planned acquisition and restoration project that will eventually include 460 acres of wetlands and their associated uplands. The marsh itself is part of a larger complex of wetlands that includes Volo Bog Nature Preserve, Moraine Hills State Park, Stickney Run Preserve and Singing Hills Forest Preserve. Together they provide nesting, foraging, and roosting habitat to over 100 species of migratory birds. — Mark Sheehy

Insect Heaven
Cressmoor Prairie in Hobart, IN, a designated state nature preserve owned and managed by the Shirley Heinze Environmental Fund, has long been recognized as a site with outstanding biodiversity. And insects are no exception. This fall, entomologist Jim Bess will complete a two year survey of the 38-acre black-soil prairie (one of only three sizable ones in the state). He has recorded 370 insect species, including at least 21 that were previously undocumented in Indiana, such as the sedge leafhopper, switch grass leafhopper, and hop borer moth. Fully 16 percent of the species are considered "remnant-dependent," meaning that they occur only on remnants of ancient natural communities and are absent from the surrounding altered landscape.

In the past, says Bess, these prairies were shaped and maintained by wildfires burning in a mosaic pattern, leaving unburned areas to act as refuges. "Many remnant-dependent insects overwinter as eggs, larvae, or adults in dead vegetation, making them vulnerable to fire," says Bess. "For these insects to survive, we must burn to keep the prairie healthy, and we need to do it in a way that leaves patches of unburned refuges from which recently burned habitat can be recolonized."

Already, Bess has confirmed that some species have begun reestablishing themselves in previously burned areas. "This study supports the common practice, used by burn management programs across the region, of not burning entire sites all at once," says Indiana Department of Natural Resources regional ecologist Tom Post. — Ronald Trigg

Jet-Setting
"We went for a three hour hike and saw all types of woodlands and other habitats. We also saw frogs and raccoons. We even heard woodpeckers," said an enthusiastic Junior Earth Team (JET) member about camping at the Indiana Dunes State Park this past May. JET is a collaborative youth program launched three years ago by Chicago Wilderness partners US Fish & Wildlife Service, the Chicago Park District, and the Field Museum.

"For a lot of urban youth, the environment isn't something they think of right away," said Nancy Saulsbury, Outdoor and Environmental Education Manager with the Chicago Park District. "The JET program is designed to change that by exposing them to a variety of environmental activities and professional opportunities." This year, 75 JET members had the chance to hike and camp; conduct natural resource surveys in Chicago parks; learn about local, regional, national, and international environmental issues; teach environmental concepts to younger campers; and represent the Chicago Park District at environmental events across the country.

The program is year-round, but during six weeks of the summer, eligible JET participants are employed in their local parks as paid interns through the Mayor's Office of Workforce Development. "Our goal is to offer teens both environmental knowledge and job skills," said Saulsbury. "And so, as the teens gain more experience, the JET program seeks opportunities for them to learn from and work with other Chicago Wilderness organizations."

Kudos To McHenry County
The McHenry County Conservation District (MCCD) recently finalized the purchase of more than 700 acres of land — 237-acre Rose parcel (northwest side of Marengo), 78-acre Wigginton parcel (Prairie Grove), 37-acre Boger parcel (Bull Valley), 220-acre Lusky parcel (adjacent to Crystal Lake), and 165-acre Napier South parcel (west side of Marengo).

The Napier and Rose parcels connect to existing land holdings along the Kishwaukee River, which has been identified by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources as one of the top three river systems in the state. The Wigginton parcel has the only geological esker found in the county, according to the MCCD Executive Director Craig Hubert. The MCCD plans prairie restoration at the Rose and Lusky parcels and needs site stewards. Call (815) 678-4431 if you are interested. — Kathy Kowal

New Members
On July 13, Chicago Wilderness welcomed four new members. A coalition of ten bird clubs, the Bird Conservation Network promotes the conservation of bird habitat in the Chicago region. Ducks Unlimited seeks to protect, enhance, restore, and manage wetlands and uplands needed by North American waterfowl. The Fox Valley Land Foundation works for the protection, management, and restoration of natural areas, especially the Fox Valley of northeastern Illinois. The Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission is a metropolitan planning organization offering a forum for elected officials and other decision-makers to develop and implement solutions in northwestern Indiana.

Orchid Bonanza
This year, the captivating and federally-threatened eastern prairie white-fringed orchid bloomed at 13 Orchid Recovery Project sites, spread across Cook, DuPage, Grundy, Henry, Iroquois, Lake, Kane, McHenry, Ogle, and Will Counties. According to project coordinator June Keibler, it was an average year — with two astounding exceptions. "The orchids at two sites just went bonkers. Both of them had over twice as many orchids as they had ever had in the past." Both sites are only about five acres in size, yet one sported 152 blooming plants, and the other had 270, compared to the five and one respectively in 1991.

Although the other sites did not show the same dramatic numbers this year, Keibler says all have shown increases since the project began. "The only downside is that more awareness of this rare flower increases potential for plant poaching. This has always been a problem for native orchids; that is why we do not release information about their locations," says Keibler. The Orchid Recovery Project is a program supported by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. For more information, contact June Keibler at (847) 428-5594

Pay Dirt
Marianne Hahn often drives by Witt Voet & Company's excavated soil piles in Lansing, IL. When Hahn, a board member of Thorn Creek Audubon Society, saw holes in one of the piles, she realized a colony of bank swallows was nesting there. Knowing these birds are protected by the 1996 Migratory Bird Treaty Act, Hahn called the US Fish and Wildlife Service's Division of Law Enforcement. In one call, Hahn reached right person, special agent Joseph E. Budzyn.

"We see situations like this more and more with all the development going on in the region," said Budzyn. "We talk to the property owners and find out what their intentions are. In this case, Mr. Witt Voet was very receptive." While habitat itself is not protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, property owners must obtain a permit to move protected birds or active nests. (If the swallows had been endangered species, the habitat too would have been protected.) "It probably wasn't easy to work around that pile of dirt, but the swallows weren't disturbed, and there was plenty of time to raise their young. It was very gratifying," said Hahn.

To report a concern or ask about wildlife law, call the US Fish and Wildlife Service at (847) 298-3250. — Alison Carney Brown

21st Century Nature
The Chicago Academy of Sciences' new Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, opens October 23, 1999. Visitors can walk among 15 to 25 different Midwest species of butterflies in Butterfly Haven meet the tiny creatures that inhabit every city home in City Science participate in problem-solving simulations based on probable environmental issues in Environmental Central learn the impact of rivers and lakes on daily life in Water Lab and explore the biodiversity of the Midwest in Wilderness Walk.

The Nature Museum will feature a kid-friendly Children's Gallery designed to teach children aged three to eight about the environment. The Academy is also working with area residents to restore nearby North Pond and the surrounding park as a viable habitat for native plants and wildlife. Date: Opens Saturday, October 23 Location: 2430 North Cannon Drive, Chicago Information: (773) 549-0606 Admission: Adult $6, Senior $4, Child/Student $3

Salt Creek Wilderness
On August 14, the Brookfield Zoo opened the Salt Creek Wilderness, 10 acres including Indian Lake, Ellen Thorne Smith Nature Trail, surrounding woodlands, and a new demonstration wetland exhibit called Dragonfly Marsh, a one-acre home for more than 12,000 plants typical of northeastern Illinois wetlands. Learn more about Dragonfly Marsh and our region's wetland heritage in Wetlands, a new publication from the zoo. Wetlands describes these important ecosystems, their benefits to people and animals, and efforts to protect and restore them. Copies are available for $2 in the Zoo's bookstore or by sending a check to Brookfield Zoo's Publications Department at 3300 Golf Rd., Brookfield, IL 60513.

CW Video Awards
The compelling Chicago Wilderness video, produced by Brookfield Zoo's Howard Greenblatt, recently won two awards: a Merit Award for Presentation of Wildlife/Cultural Interrelationships at the 22nd International Wildlife Film Festival, competing with 244 entries from 19 different countries, and an Award of Distinction from the Communicator Awards. This beautiful video amazes with its stunning photography, informs through interviews with local conservationists, and inspires with quotes from people who simply enjoy what Chicago's natural areas have to offer. Copies are available for $6. Call Howard Greenblatt at (708) 485-0263 x853. — Andrea Frederici Ross

Exploding Rockets
It's been a bumper year for Cakile edentula, also known as sea rocket, a state-threatened coastal plant in Illinois. Said local birder and activist Leslie Borns, "Every summer we've noticed a few at Montrose beach, but for some reason this year there's an explosion of this plant! Could be all the rain we had last spring and early summer." Back in 1993, nobody thought sea rockets — or any Great Lakes coastal plants — still survived at Montrose. But one September morning that year, botanist Margo Milde was birding there when she recognized the purple flowers, succulent leaves, and swollen seed pods of sea rockets.

"It was very exciting to find it in such an urbanized area. Sea rocket is a very conservative plant, meaning it's usually first to disappear when its habitat is altered," says Milde. Yet the sea rockets seem to be surviving and even flourishing in the heart of the city. Borns notes that during an August Bird Conservation Network/Openlands tour, masses of it were also discovered behind the South Shore Cultural Center at 71st St. and the lakefront, on a site many are seeking to preserve as a natural area.

Streams Tons Cleaner
More than 650 volunteers removed approximately 10 tons of trash from DuPage County streams at the Conservation Foundation's River Sweep '99 on June 5th. It was a record number of volunteers for the nine year old program. Since 1991, this annual event has involved more than 3,000 volunteers who have removed an estimated 118 tons of garbage.

For their help with the news, thanks to: Michael Graff, Debbie Hillman, and Nicole Kamins.