Wild Things 2025

The grassroots movement to Save Bell Bowl Prairie expanded swiftly in large part due to the inspired minds who created visual art, street theater, music, poetry, and more, to bring awareness to the importance of saving this small remnant gravel prairie in Rockford, Illinois.

Scientific data is crucial in conserving biodiversity, and art is an essential partner in communicating the information in a way that touches hearts and catalyzes people to action. Art also serves as a means of expressing grief when conservation efforts do not succeed. As we near the 2nd anniversary of the destruction of all but 6.2 acres of Bell Bowl Prairie, join us to celebrate this beautiful place with a journey through the art it inspired.

Canal Shores, a non-profit golf course, is redefining how community green spaces can serve diverse purposes. While half of our land is dedicated to maintaining an affordable and inclusive golf course open to all, the other half is a 40-acre restoration in progress featuring a three-mile hiking trail along the canal, built entirely through grassroots volunteer efforts. Since creating a management plan in 2016, we’ve gained momentum, hiring a full-time ecology staff member in 2024 to further our mission. Join us to explore how we’ve engaged the community in environmental stewardship and restoration, the challenges we’ve faced, and the successes we’ve achieved in transforming green spaces for everyone.

How do we solve the critical issues we are facing today with our environment?
What are the most effective strategies to address these urgent environmental challenges?

There is no single answer, and we are all still working toward that, but what we do know is that humans are the key. Getting people involved all the way from the grassroots level is going to be the driving force in creating those solutions and putting them into action.

For over 10 years, we at Wings and Talons have been working with ambassador birds of prey as our partners in live educational presentations as a gateway to get people connected with our environment and jumpstart their involvement in conservation. Join us to see how a grassroots organization that is powered by volunteers, donations and passion has been reaching thousands of people of all ages to create and nurture these connections. In this session, we'll share the approaches we use, the strategies we employ, and the lessons we have learned.

The Clark Street Beach Bird Sanctuary (CSBBS) is on Lake Michigan just south of the Northwestern University campus. The two-acre CSBBS was created in 2015 by connecting existing migrating bird habitats to include part of the beach. In addition to many regular volunteers who monitor migratory birds, plant, weed, and water, we have ongoing relationships with local companies, churches, and student groups for special workdays; we work with summer camps, including one for indigenous youth; we collaborate with the city on activities; and we engaged a garden club in designing a new natural area to replace an overgrown area. In our prominent site we also have frequent conversations with passersby. All these serve to increase education about natural habitat and conservation as well as improving the sanctuary. We will share our methods for engaging the Evanston community, which may be useful for other small natural areas.

Effective plant conservation at large scales requires collaboration between many community members and agencies. However, there is often a lack of formal partnerships between stakeholders who could benefit from working with each other. Native plant conservation alliances are designed to align priorities and centralize resources so that anyone working on plant conservation can access a network of beneficial partners. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources will be launching the Illinois Native Plant Conservation Alliance, and we are seeking to involve anyone who works with Illinois native seed collection, propagation, restoration, and conservation. We will be holding a native plant summit in fall 2025 to formally launch the alliance and welcome all interested stakeholders to join.

One of the driving goals of the Nature Museum TEENS program is to support science identity, agency, and sense of belonging. The summer program is a 6-week, paid internship that engages 30 Chicago high school students in lab- and field-based activities focused on urban ecology. During the first 3 weeks of the program, teens learn field methods, develop questions, and identify interest areas by contributing to existing Nature Museum projects and participatory science projects, such as iNaturalist, eBird, Caterpillars Count, and Squirrel-Net. In the final 3 weeks of the program, teens work in small groups to develop and carry out field investigations based on shared interests. Their projects are designed in a participatory science and open science model, utilizing low or no cost materials, clear protocols, and ways for the public to contribute. Teens collaboratively develop their own research questions, design protocols and shareable mobile data collection forms, collect and analyze field-based data, post findings on self-created project websites, and share their work at a final project showcase open to the general public. Another unique aspect of the program is that participants learn how to collect and preserve plant and invertebrate specimens, which are incorporated into the museum’s scientific and teaching collections. Participants consistently report feeling connected to a larger community and that they are contributing to something larger than themselves. Additionally, the teen-created projects and public showcase serve to increase participants’ science identity and agency.

In April 2024, the TEENS program became one of six out-of-school time, pre-college STEM programs in the country to earn the first-of-its kind accreditation from Middle States Association Commissions on Elementary and Secondary Schools (MSA-CESS). The accreditation elevates the critical learning and skills development provided by the TEENS program, promoting equity by increasing the value of these experiences in the higher education admissions process. The accreditation was facilitated through the STEM PUSH Network, an NSF INCLUDES Alliance working to leverage the power of pre-college STEM programs to broaden participation of underrepresented students in STEM.

This session will highlight the program’s pedagogical approaches, including successes and challenges. Presenters will share the program progression through the lens of program participants, sharing teen experiences, participant outcomes, and teen-created projects.

Opportunities to experience camp and nature play should be accessible for all children. Brookfield Zoo Chicago’s Camp program and the Hamill Family Play Zoo welcome children with various cognitive and physical disabilities by creating inclusive experiences based on universal design. Zoo staff share their insight around utilizing specific tools and strategies to best support this and allow children of all abilities to connect to, care for, and conserve nature.

Community gardens provide resources for pollinators and people, but little research has explored how to enhance their mutual benefits. Our goals are to identify garden characteristics associated with higher pollinator diversity and mutually beneficial relationships among gardeners and pollinators. We observed >23 genera of bees, wasps, and butterflies at 21 gardens. Among survey respondents (n=171), the minority (24%) correctly identified native pollinators but most (64%) took action to promote pollinators such as choosing specific plants. Further, more frequent butterfly sightings were associated with improved psychological well-being (e.g. relaxation) in the garden. We will discuss the implications of our results for garden management and One Health in cities.

The gROWing Chicago Habitat initiative is a working group based out of the University of Illinois Chicago that engages energy and transportation organizations, conservation groups, public and private landowners, and other stakeholders in creating pollinator habitat in the Chicago Wilderness Region on rights-of-way (ROW). This presentation will explain the potential of rights-of-way to serve as habitat and connect ecosystems for species that rely on early successional grassland habitats. Additionally, this presentation will discuss a prioritization tool that uses geospatial software to focus habitat creation in areas that are biodiversity hotspots, can address environmental injustices, and can increase habitat connectivity.

Plant migration is happening every year as propagules disperse to suitable habitat. Range expansions northward for native plants are predicted as regional average temperatures increase due to anthropogenic global warming. This presentation will discuss contemporary ecoregion boundaries of several plant species of interest and how climate change may be allowing a trend of increased native plant migration. Range maps, habitat characteristics, autecology, and recent migration will be discussed.

The timing of the life events in plants (leafing out, flowering, senescence, etc.) is largely determined by weather conditions, especially temperature. As global climate change generally increases temperatures and changes seasonal weather trends, it has the potential to have a strong effect on individual plant species and entire plant communities. The effects can have large consequences for competition, carbon sequestration, reproduction, and interactions with pollinators. We collected data on herbaceous and woody plants at one Illinois forest from 1993 to 2021 for over 60 species. In some groups we found spring events occur earlier, autumn events occur later, and the growing season is rapidly increasing. We discuss the implications of this growth, and potential winners and losers.

Butternut (Juglans cinerea, aka white walnut) is a threatened tree in the walnut genus which was once ecologically and economically important, and has deep cultural significance. It has been suffering severe decline since the 1960s due to a fungal pathogen. Our presentation will discuss the state of butternut health in the region, ongoing research by The Morton Arboretum to better understand its ecology and disease resistance, and how a little stewardship may go a long way to promote conservation and recovery. We will share our observations in local preserves, including of healthy and dying mature trees as well as seedlings in Chicago region preserves. We look forward to discussion and ideas.

Indian Ridge Marsh (IRM) has been extremely degraded by hydrologic alteration and commercial and industrial dumping of dredged materials, slag, construction debris, and industrial waste material. Today, IRM North consists of shallow pools bounded by relatively steep shorelines, a result of the bulldozing of waste materials into the marsh. Working with the Chicago Park District, The Wetlands Initiative has restored over 3,500 linear feet of IRM North’s shoreline, reestablishing healthy gradual transition zones from upland prairie habitat down to the marsh. These new shoreline habitats are now able to support native wetland vegetation and wetland-dependent wildlife.

Hybrid invasive cattail (Typha × glauca) establishes dense monocultures throughout eutrophic Great Lakes wetlands. Large-scale restoration research at Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge [Saginaw County, MI] is currently assessing repeat harvesting treatments and cattail-derived-biochar application to reduce Typha dominance and address nutrient loading. Loyola University Chicago graduate researchers are exploring reintroduction of dominant wetland plants (hardstem bulrush & tussock sedge) post-cattail management in a greenhouse experiment. A second graduate study is investigating the impact of cattail management on waterbird occupancy, utilizing machine-learning technology and wildlife recorders. Results will inform land managers on potential solutions to address cattail monocultures to improve biodiversity.

Snake Road in the Shawnee National Forest, once a site of snake persecution, has transformed into a conservation area dedicated to protecting reptiles. This talk explores how landscape management policies have shifted public perceptions of snakes. Using surveys of visitors and residents, interviews with educators and policymakers, and archival research, the study examines whether direct encounters with snakes foster greater tolerance and appreciation. Findings indicate increased positive attitudes influenced by social and cultural factors, though high visitor traffic raises sustainability concerns. The presentation discusses how intentional landscape management can promote biodiversity and reshape attitudes toward uncharismatic species, offering insights for future conservation efforts.

The Chiwaukee Prairie-Illinois Beach Lake Plain is a stretch of connected natural areas on the western shore of Lake Michigan which spans across the Wisconsin-Illinois Border. The Lake Plain includes Kenosha Dunes, Chiwaukee Prairie State Natural Area, Spring Bluff Forest Preserve, Illinois Beach State Park, Hosah Park, and Waukegan Dunes and serves as the highest quality dune and swale ecosystem in the Chicago Region. The Lake Plain Collaborative, formally established in 2010 through MOU, is a concerted effort between state and local agencies, universities, non-profits and other organizations and individuals seeking to manage and protect the Lake Plain as one ecological unit. The Lake Plain Collaborative is now a widely recognized  alliance which cooperatively secures grant funding and fosters coordinated management and conservation efforts across the state line.

In 2024, Tarik set out on a Cook County “Big Year:” a personal challenge to identify as many unique species of birds as possible within a calendar year. With a retelling of his adventure, Tarik will impart his learnings about Cook County’s diverse natural spaces, the growing birding community, the steep decline of birds in our region, and how the environmental community can work to better protect our avian friends for generations to come. As a member of The Nature Conservancy in Illinois’ government relations team, he will weave in potential policy and advocacy solutions to our worsening biodiversity crisis.

Reintroduction is a tool used in conservation biology to establish a new population of previously extirpated species. It is often necessary when habitat fragmentation prevents natural reestablishment. In freshwater turtle species, reintroduction is becoming more common, but questions about best practices remain due to their longevity. Here, we discuss results and lessons learned 4 years into an experimental reintroduced population of the state-endangered Blanding’s Turtles and explore adaptive management strategies to ensure this population reaches self-sustainability.

Cradling the shore of south Lake Michigan, the bi-state Calumet Region represents an ecologically diverse landscape that was permanently altered by steel mills and industrial-scale landscape manipulation. Recent habitat restoration efforts have revealed that even some of the most environmentally destroyed sites have the potential to eventually function as refugia for wildlife. Capture-mark-recapture methods were used to estimate population parameters of two species of deer mouse: the once-thought-extirpated prairie deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) and the white-footed deer mouse (Peromyscus leucopus) across two habitat types at three Chicago natural areas with substantial historical degradation (Big Marsh Park, Beaubien Woods, and Marian Byrnes Park). Preliminary results indicate that even altered landscapes can provide important habitat for small mammals, including locally rare species.