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Wild Things 2025

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.

GW

Greg Wahl

Hahnaman Sand Prairie

Owner

Whiteside County

Search facebook for “Hahnaman Sand Prairie”

About me

prairie restoration:

Sand prairie, regal fritillaries, ornate box turtles, plains hognose snake, northern harrier, invasive plants elimination, henslow sparrow, how to get land maintenance workers, doing it on your own, prairie chickens, overseeding to increase plant biodiversity.

10:15am CST

500 Species on 20 Acres: Re-Inventorying “The Island of Rare Plants” Room 26Ryan Sorrells

11:15am CST

Engaging with Elected Officials on the Environment Room 29Bridget Degnen • Ann Williams • Laura Fine • Patricia Theresa Flynn In Plain Site: Lessons from Working with Municipalities to Establish Native Plants at Scale Room 48Catherine Bryla • Mary Ann Lema Updating the Illinois Big Tree Register (IBTR) Room 41Christopher David Benda Cemetery Prairies: A Matter of Life and Death Rooms 24, 25Jack Shouba Restoring oak ecosystems: goals and techniques Rooms 30, 31Christos Economou Long-term monitoring of grassland bird populations at Springbrook Prairie Forest Preserve, DuPage County Room 49Joe Suchecki

12:30pm CST

Launching the Illinois Native Plant Conservation Alliance Room 28Brian Charles Lessons From The Reintroduction of State-Endangered Blanding’s Turtles Rooms 24, 25Callie Klatt Golba • Gary Glowacki • Kathryn McCabe • Richard King

1:15pm CST

Conservation through time, in time?: Comments on 40 years observing and managing natural lands Room 48Floyd Catchpole Illinois & Beyond! Herpetological research at the Field Museum Room 45Sara Ruane • Arianna Kuhn • Madelynn Sinclair

2:15pm CST

Natural Land Institute's Legacy Tree Project Room 42Kim Johnsen • Alan Branhagen Exploring floral networks for bees, beetles, flies, wasps, ants, and bugs Rooms 24, 25Angella Moorehouse • K.C. Carter Propagation of Hemi-parasitic Native Plants Room 28Luke Dahlberg Quit Herbiciding Thistles (in Natural Area Restorations) Rooms 30, 31Julianne Mason Birds and Biodiversity: Protecting and Restoring Habitat for Grassland Birds in the Tallgrass Prairie Region Room 44Jaron Cook

3:15pm CST

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 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

4:15pm CST

24 years of sand hill prairie restoration results in north central Illinois Rooms 59, 60James Alwill Lessons in Using Rope Dodder to Control Tall/Canada Goldenrod and Sawtooth Sunflower Room 45Luke Dahlberg Mushrooms of Illinois Rooms 30, 31Andrew Miller Recovering and establishing prairie and savanna with frequent fire and keystone species Room 46Rich Henderson

5:00pm CST

Closing Plenary/Social Hour/Poster Session Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Joey Santore Deciphering Invasion Patterns: Familial Analysis of Non-Native Plant Species in North America Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Sofia Al-Shayeb Effects of Small-Scale Burning and Mowing on Restored Prairie Plant Communities Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Jillian Becksfort • David Hoekman Enhancing Monitoring and Management with Geospatial Technology and Drones Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Virginia McHugh-Kurtz • Joseph Angermeier • Crystal Peirce • Mukila Maitha • Jackson Zinck • Fernanda De Souza Ramos Kuzuhara The Effect of Urban Native Landscaping on Species Abundance, Richness, and Diversity in Comparison to Urban Ornamental Landscaping Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Claudia Morrison • Tess Lesniak