Into the Wild

Bartel Grassland

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Cook County, IL

Bartel Grassland is easy to miss when roaming the south suburbs. Signs announce an “Audubon Society Habitat Improvement Project,” but otherwise the 640-acre Cook County Forest Preserve District site, not far from the car dealerships and big-box stores of Matteson, is inconspicuous. “I’ve seldom taken someone out here and they didn’t say, ‘Where has this been hiding?’” says volunteer steward Dick Riner.

The wide-open, pancake-flat field ringed by mixed woods feels spacious; some call it “our little Serengeti,” since visitors (especially those with binoculars) often can see several groups of wild animals — coyotes, deer, harriers, owls — all at one time, hunting or browsing far in the distance.

Short-eared owls and northern harriers, both state-endangered species, are regular winter visitors here. Both fly low to the ground, the owls with moth-like wingbeats and the harriers with their trademark hover. A few harriers even stayed this past summer, though none were found nesting. Long-eared owls and northern saw-whet owls visit in winter, too, using the pines bordering the grassland. And Riner looks forward to the short-eared owls in November or December. “That first short-eared owl of the season gives you an adrenaline rush,” he says. In the summer, Henslow’s sparrows, bobolinks, savannah sparrows, eastern meadowlarks, and eastern bluebirds nest here.

The land was farmed for hay for many years before the Thorn Creek Audubon Society, led by then-president Marianne Hahn, urged the county to begin restoration activities. Hahn had discovered a few Henslow’s sparrows at Bartel, along with savannah sparrows and scores of bobolinks.

Among the scarcest breeding birds in the Midwest, the Henslow’s sparrow is declining throughout its range because of the loss of large uninterrupted grasslands. In the 1990s, “Marianne swore she would save the land for the Henslow’s sparrow,” Riner says. Thorn Creek Audubon soon partnered with the Forest Preserve District, Audubon–Chicago Region, CorLands, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to begin restoring 380 acres of grassland to wet-mesic prairie.

A key component of the restoration was the removal of seven miles of osage orange hedgerows from the otherwise open field, to improve nesting success for grassland birds. Contractors also disabled existing drain tiles to reestablish some of the natural wet areas on the site. District staff and volunteers now conduct periodic burns. And on a December day in 2005, volunteers planted 14 million native grass and wildflower seeds, which are beginning to replace the Eurasian grasses. “Little bluestem has really, really taken hold,” Riner says.

Upcoming projects include formalizing the trail system, adding a parking lot along the edge of the preserve, and finishing a berm for wildlife viewing. Visit the Bartel Grassland Restoration Project Web site.

Riner, a retired schoolteacher, offers winter twilight owl tours to all comers. Call (708) 720-5683. What keeps him coming back nearly every day of the year, even on the coldest days? “It’s the absolute solitude in winter,” he says. “Sometimes you get that feeling like you’re on another planet.”

— Robert Dolgan