Letters

HANGING IN FOR FENS

To the Editor,

Whenever a new CW comes, the first thing I do is to turn to the last page to see if it still says “Words by Stephen Packard,” then I sit down and read that first.

This month your explanation reminded me of my first fen experience. I was taking care of a friend’s house and dog. We went down the big hill (a moraine) to a little southwest Michigan lake. The dog ran out on the frozen lake while I was left standing in the cold, cold water above my ankles just a foot from the ice. What was this? How could the lake water be frozen and this land not? I knew and had studied the summer plants at this site but never learned about the seepage that made them so special. And so our horizons extend!

The magazine delights me, pleases me, teaches me to hang in — there are people who care and can be helped to care through experience and teaching. And when you get enough of them, wonderful things can happen, land gets saved, or invasives are removed, or access for walkers created, or children’s curiosity ignited, or...

Because I lived in Wilmette during its growthsome years, 1917 to 1938, and spent time with my parents there until 1976, I thought I knew the lakeshore area as far north as the state line pretty well, but in every issue some new piece that’s been saved or cleaned up appears. Three cheers! Long may your inspiration keep inspiring all those millions of people. I still like to think of those ever-so-insightful people who thought up the Cook County Forest Preserves in the very beginning. What a great idea to save land over so wide an area.

Hang in there — we need your inspiration and dedicated leadership. Have a healthy, happy 2009!

Emma Bickham Pitcher
Kalamazoo, MI

GROUNDWORK FOR EDEN

Dear Editor,

The Winter ’09 Chicago Wilderness story of Amelia and Michael Howard’s dedication to bring the Eden Place Nature Center to fruition is a model in stewardship. Readers should know the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago also contributed to the area’s greening.

After reading in the Winter ’03 issue about the Howards and their difficult task, I visited the site. Money to import soil was not necessary. District scientists worked with Mr. Howard to acquire the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency’s permission to use a safe, stabilized, useful byproduct of wastewater treatment called biosolids.

The district provided technical assistance in using the nutrient-rich organic biosolids. In 2003 and 2004, 68 cubic yards of exceptional quality biosolids were deployed. First, a blend of biosolids and topsoil was spread on a 400-square-foot seedbed, which now supports flowers, grasses, shrubs, and trees. Then, a previously almost barren 5,000-square-foot area received six inches of a blend of coarse sand and biosolids to establish a sea of lush, healthy grass. District biosolids at Eden Place provided a cost-effective approach to producing good quality flora and grasses in nutrient depleted and poorly drained soil.

Richard Lanyon
Executive Director MWRDGC

WOODPECKERS AT HOME

Dear Editor,

Speaking of pileated woodpeckers in Cook County Forest Preserves (“Natural Events,” Winter ’09), I have seen pileateds there twice this year, 2008. The first was on April 25th near Boomerang Slough along the yellow trail. The second was this past Friday, December 12th, in the Cap Sauers Holdings near the intersection of the green and blue trails. I had to travel to Georgia to see my first pileated several years back. I have since seen them occasionally at various Illinois and Wisconsin sites, but it is very exciting to find them so close to home.

Neal J. Ney
Evanston, IL

CORRECTIONS

In “Rare Butterflies Settle in at Gensburg-Markham” (Winter ’09), we incorrectly stated that butterfly caterpillars form cocoons. They form chrysalides. In the same issue, in “Healy Prairie Gives Back,” we mislocated one key site. The original Healy Road Prairie was in Barrington Hills. CW regrets the errors.