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.
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Julianne Mason, Ecological Management Supervisor for the Forest Preserve District of Will County, will recount the differing trajectories of two thistle-infested prairie restorations, where opposite thistle-management strategies were used. In conjunction with the results of a soil herbicide residual experiment, she makes the case that thistles in natural areas are a symptom of a problem – usually, a lack of enough native perennials – and why applying herbicide to kill thistles may be counterproductive. Juli has been professionally doing prairie and wetland restorations for the past 25 years, and like many of you, her previous self from >5 years ago would have been skeptical of this presentation’s contents and take-home message. However, it’s humbling and exciting at the same time to be reminded of the complexity of our natural systems, and to continue to learn and grow as restoration practitioners and natural resource managers.
