Spring 1999

Prescribed burns amaze visitors, allow for discovery

Kane County, Illinois

Fox River Trail hounds beware! Conservation efforts at Norris Woods have been known to stop traffic. Bikers, hikers, runners, and skaters — who usually breeze by faster than a speeding sparrow —  halt in amazement when they see Norris Woods being burned. Norris Woods has become a unique opportunity for discovery, a place where folks stop with a need to know more. The person responsible is Mary Ochsenschlager, manager of natural resources and interpretive services for the St. Charles Park District. Most people call her Mary O.

Walk with Mary through Norris Woods and you'll learn that it is rare for such a well-traveled trail to run smack through a dedicated nature preserve. However, Mary says, "There are a lot of people who come [to Norris Woods] who wouldn't come out here without their bikes," and furthermore that, "the hardest thing to do is introduce people [to nature] who don't know much — just to open their eyes — to help them finally see things." When the District conducts prescribed burns in the spring or fall, she says, "People stop, and they want to know what we're doing. They're concerned."

Owned for many years by the Norris family of St. Charles, the parcel was purchased by The Nature Conservancy in 1978 which transferred ownership to the St. Charles Park District and the city of St. Charles. Norris Nature Preserve is now a 70-acre site that abuts the east bank of the Fox River in St. Charles and is part of the last 260 acres of high-quality upland forest remaining in Kane County. It consists of unusually large numbers of red and white oaks, some of them 100 to 150 years old. Sugar maple, willow, silver maple, white ash, red elm, black cherry, choke cherry, blue ash, and Virginia creeper are also found here. The rich herb community includes twinleaf, squawroot, shinleaf, poke milkweed, and ferns. In addition, 41 species of nesting birds have been recorded at Norris.

Most of Norris Woods is what Mary calls "good woods," due to the prevalence of healthy native trees and woodland communities. When fires ran rampant through these parts, prevailing winds from the southwest carried the strongest flames across this landscape to burn all in their path.

When such fires reached the Fox River, naturally, they stopped. Thus the Fox River allowed natural communities that are somewhat fire-sensitive to thrive here.

For more information contact the St. Charles Park District at (630) 513-3338.

—  Christopher Collier