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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.

Jose Feliciano

Illustrator

Hillside

https://instagram.com/thehorsepuppy/

Find me on

About me

I'm an illustrator with a passion for wildlife, conservation and traveling. My goal is to make the natural world and art more approachable to young and old. Whether it be putting on nature-drawing workshops or dispensing random animal facts, I'm a huge fan of our awesome lands and I want everyone in on the party. I'm super excited to hear more about connecting people to nature through art. Yay nature! Yay ART! Let's DO THIS!

10:15am CST

Arena Birds: Saving the Uncommon Nighthawk Rooms 52, 53 - Avian Collective presented by Illinois Audubon SocietyStephanie Beilke • Mason Fidino • Edward Warden Putting the Magic in Cicada: Findings from the Magicicada Soundmap Project Room 49Negin Almassi

11:15am CST

The Interdisciplinary Art of Nature Journaling Room 28Carrie Carlson

12:30pm CST

Touching Hearts to Inspire Action: The Art of Bell Bowl Prairie Room 44Jessie Crow Mermel Restoring ecologically healthy shorelines at Indian Ridge Marsh Room 43Katie Kucera • Harry Kuttner Lessons From The Reintroduction of State-Endangered Blanding’s Turtles Rooms 24, 25Callie Klatt Golba • Gary Glowacki • Kathryn McCabe • Richard King

1:15pm CST

Chicago Black-crowned Night Heron Panel Discussion Rooms 52, 53 - Avian Collective presented by Illinois Audubon SocietyMike Ward • Henry Adams • Brad Semel • Sarah Slayton • Amy Lardner • Jo Fessett • Michael Avara Surveying the Creeks of Cook County Room 46Steve Silic

2:15pm CST

Breaking Down Barriers to Nature: A Conversation with Access Living and Openlands on Creating Inclusive Outdoor Experiences Room 43Huan Song Birds and Biodiversity: Protecting and Restoring Habitat for Grassland Birds in the Tallgrass Prairie Region Room 44Jaron Cook

3:15pm CST

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 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

4:15pm CST

EJ-ucation through the Arts: Teaching the next generation of activists using art and music Rooms 54, 56, 58Dani Abboud • Eddie Flores Mushrooms of Illinois Rooms 30, 31Andrew Miller Recovering and establishing prairie and savanna with frequent fire and keystone species Room 46Rich Henderson Bird migration through urban landscapes: challenges and opportunities Rooms 52, 53 - Avian Collective presented by Illinois Audubon SocietyBenjamin Van Doren Guiding Migratory Bird Stopover Habitat Conservation in the Illinois Coastal Zone Room 50Stephanie Beilke Herping as the new birding: Connecting with our scaly friends, responsibly. Room 29Regina Witherell-Poe

5:00pm CST

Deciphering Invasion Patterns: Familial Analysis of Non-Native Plant Species in North America Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Sofia Al-Shayeb Glacial topography of the Chicago Region Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Jeff Daube Interactions between Midwest flora & fauna Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Catherine Hu Native plants and pollinators in Chicagoland Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Rika Mizoguchi Promoting bog conservation through botanical illustration Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Cael Dant The Environmental Beauty of the Calumet Region Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Blake Lenoir Unearthed: Art and Transformation Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Pamela Sloan