The Wild Things Conference Returns Saturday, March 1, 2025 - SOLD OUT

We’re thrilled to welcome you again to learn and share your expertise with our community. We’ve put together an exciting lineup of workshops and sessions from regional and national experts, plus meet & greets, video content, exhibitors, and sponsors. With over 140 presentations and discussion panels to choose from, the in-person program engages a diverse range of topics, research, and skills, and plenty of opportunities to meet with friends, old and new.

Thank you as well to our sponsors, scholarship supporters, and exhibitors who are all helping to make this another tremendously successful Wild Things.

Tickets for Wild Things 2025 are sold out. For additional information on the 2025 conference, visit wildthingscommunity.org.

**PLEASE NOTE: Some details are subject to change.**

NOTICE: Please be advised that photos and videos will be taken during Wild Things 2025. By attending, you consent to be photographed, filmed, and/or otherwise recorded. Your attendance on this event constitutes your agreement to the use of any resulting media by Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves for promotional, marketing, or any other purpose in perpetuity, without further approval or any compensation.

2:15pm CST

Avoesis: Learning to listen in a noisy city Room 45Liam Heneghan Engaging Volunteer Leaders to Shape the Future of the Volunteer Stewardship Network Room 49Brooke Thurau • Caleb Grantham Inclusive Nature Programming, An Experiential Flow Room 29Cassandra Powell • Ayanna London • ZenFrankie Johnson • Rebekah Joy Hall Natural Land Institute's Legacy Tree Project Room 42Kim Johnsen • Alan Branhagen Systemic Racism and Urban Ecology: Applications in Community Science Room 27Joy Bailey • Zelle Tenorio Exploring floral networks for bees, beetles, flies, wasps, ants, and bugs Rooms 24, 25Angella Moorehouse • K.C. Carter Eco-restoration in Chicagoland and Southern India: A personal journey Rooms 54, 56, 58Sai Ramakrishna Nature's New Ally: Can AI (Artificial Intelligence) Fix What We Broke? Room 26Evan Barker • Philip Willink • Robb Telfer Propagation of Hemi-parasitic Native Plants Room 28Luke Dahlberg Quit Herbiciding Thistles (in Natural Area Restorations) Rooms 30, 31Julianne Mason Stewardship Decisions: Balancing Risks & Rewards Room 48Louis Mule Working with Your Local Utility Room 41Kelvin Limbrick Bat Tracker Community Science: Insights after Seven Years Room 47Liza Lehrer • Sean Obrochta • Thomas Murphy • Gary Morrissey Birds and Biodiversity: Protecting and Restoring Habitat for Grassland Birds in the Tallgrass Prairie Region Room 44Jaron Cook Lessons learned confronting predator killing contests Room 46Jane McBride • David Parsons, MS Muirhead Springs: A Mitigation Bank & Migratory Bird Success Story Rooms 55, 57Sadie Dainko Northern Saw-whet Owls: Our Secretive Winter Neighbors Rooms 52, 53 - Avian Collective presented by Illinois Audubon SocietyMichael Avara