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.

3:15pm CST

The Non-Filmmaker’s Guide to Filmmaking Room 49Bob Dolgan Community Scientists and Fungal Conservation Room 47Gregory M. Mueller Natural History of Chicago Area Hunting Wasps and Parasitoids Room 50Terry Miesle • alan molumby A Decision Procedure to Minimize Impacts from Prescribed Fire on Selected Sensitive Wildlife Species Room 27Tom Velat • Nick Fuller A nine-year experiment testing the ability of wood betony to reduce the dominance of tall prairie grasses and tall goldenrod. Room 28Thomas Simpson Brush pile burn scar recovery trajectories and techniques for speeding recovery Rooms 30, 31Emma Leavens • Meghan Midgley • Tony Del Vallé Following Nature's Calendar: A Long-term Phenology Project to Monitor Seasonal Changes and Inform Management Practices Room 29Adam Rembert Oak woodland restoration at Somme Woods: summer scything and seeds work make all the difference Room 44Eriko Kojima Prairies in the city? Conservation, Community Engagement and Stewardship Working Together for People and Nature Room 45Dr. Debra Williams • Karl Gnaedinger • Shane Tripp Preserving a Legacy: Conservation in Southern Illinois Room 42Caleb Grantham Red Gate Woods: The Forest Preserves of Cook County’s Largest Ever Ecological Restoration Project Room 26Troy Showerman • Sam Pirruccello The Chicago Region - A Critical Migratory Bird Corridor: Habitat Management Needs Room 46Eric Secker • BOB FISHER 2024 Brood XIII Periodical Cicadas Rooms 55, 57Carl Strang Chicago Purple Martin Program Room 43Lauren Nassef Examining Coyote Behavioral Tendencies Via Novel Object Testing Rooms 24, 25Katie Baughman Factors impacting the decline of eastern Whip-poor-wills in Illinois, and what we can do the recover the species Rooms 52, 53 - Avian Collective presented by Illinois Audubon SocietyMike Ward • Michael Avara • TJ Benson • Grant Witynski • Dave Edlund • Holly Coates Making River Restoration Work for Migratory Birds Rooms 54, 56, 58Lauren Umek • Nathan Gill • Raed Mansour • Matt Igleski Scouting Grows Conservation Activity Room 41Jim Honan • Wayne Schimpff The Art of Collecting Woody Seeds Room 40Connor Shaw