Preserving Wild Spaces - My work in video format

Thanks, Justin. The diversity is what I'm so pleased with. I went to a wetland restoration seminar and they all talked about how difficult it was to get great blue lobelia to germinate and mature and we have a lot of this that came in from seed. So, I think we just have really good soil we're working with.

At the time the conservancy and engineer were talking to my neighbor, I was hoping he'd retain them for his portion of the creek. In retrospect, I'm glad he declined. It's a ton of work to maintain it to a healthy state and a 70-80ish man with no passion wouldn't be inclined. The first year we had at least 100 thistle that came up along with a carpet of ladys thumb we had to contend with in addition to the rcg. I guess his rcg monoculture is probably better than all that stuff. Maybe one day we'll talk him into the project and offer to maintain it for him when our project matures and is less work. I would be excited about that.

Sure, I'll post more pics as it matures.

Best of luck on the land acquisition. It seems like a really nice piece to preserve. I'm looking forward to watching your progress on this.

 

Nice work! I knew you could do it.

Now on to the next feat....management of that land. Them there is a lot of acreage!

 

Wow. And our group was pleased with acquiring an additional 6.5 acres last year, but then our group is all volunteer and is funded almost entirely by private donations. 1773 acres is very cool! Is any ranching still going to occur there? Was there originally buffalo in that area?

FYI : I had problems viewing your placerlandtrust.org website (Windows XP and Firefox) - the navigation links & blue background were overwriting the middle/right side of the text

 

Yes, it was the PLT website, your link was fine.

We're going to stay a volunteer org. for a long time (the plan is forever, but who can say what will happen when there's a big change in board members). We've been around 40 years and have 350 acres now, in about 10 parcels, about half of that is active management for prairies, etc. the other half is left as is for now. For larger parcels that become available we lobby the county government, they have a good system of "forest preserves" here. But large parcels are not commonly found in the Chicago suburbs.

They're re-introducing bison into some larger properties in Illinois, but we don't have that kind of capability. What would be nice is timber wolves, to help with the deer problem...

 

Here's to hoping that they County's priorities are as you see them. I wonder if there's a way to draft the plan as binding and that can only be changed by mutual consent. Then, if the political waves shift, the land doesn't suffer.

 

I would not just be touring if I lived there. I would be volunteering under your direction.

I saw the video and that land is exquisite! I love land that has watershed on it. It adds another dimension. We've seen with our creek restoration how much more wildlife is drawn with open water.

Congrats on protecting it. I'm glad to hear you'll not experience problems in the future. That was a big concern for us placing our easement in the hands of the land conservancy but we're as confident we can be that their philosophies won't change.

Have fun and don't let the task wear you down.

I hope you're feeling ok.