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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.

Rachel Gustafson (Utt)

McHenry County Conservation District

Education Program Coordinator

Find me on

9:00am CST

Opening Plenary: Ode to Joy - A life with dragonflies Rooms 21-25 & 30-34Marla Garrison

10:15am CST

Ecology of Oak Masting Cycles and Red-Headed Woodpecker Behavior: How Weather Drives Acorn Production and Wildlife Dynamics Room 29Anastasia Rahlin • Addy Yoder

11:15am CST

Extent and consequences of chemical trespass in Illinois ecosystems Rooms 54, 56, 58David Zaya • Kim Erndt-Pitcher • Marty Kemper

12:30pm CST

Conserving and restoring the threatened butternut tree (Juglans cinerea, aka white walnut) Room 48Emma Leavens • Gavin Salas • Sean Hoban

1:15pm CST

Pollen Specialist Bees: Host Plants, Threats, Conservation Rooms 30, 31Heather Holm

3:15pm CST

Community Scientists and Fungal Conservation Room 47Gregory M. Mueller

4:15pm CST

20 years in the flatwoods: challenges, changes, and amphibian conservation outcomes Rooms 55, 57Allison Sacerdote-Velat

5:00pm CST

Closing Plenary/Social Hour/Poster Session Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Joey Santore Anthropogenic impacts on painted turtles (Chrysemys picta): Effects of human-derived sounds on nesting and development Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Beth A. Reinke • Sara S Crow Avian Acorn Herbivory in a Midwestern Oak Savanna Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Paige Terpstra • Derek Rosenberger Before and After: Through Soil Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Ellie Wasilewski Deciphering Invasion Patterns: Familial Analysis of Non-Native Plant Species in North America Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Sofia Al-Shayeb Determining the correlation between phenotype and carotenoids concentration in Painted turtles Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Cesilia Aguilar Effects of Small-Scale Burning and Mowing on Restored Prairie Plant Communities Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Jillian Becksfort • David Hoekman Glacial topography of the Chicago Region Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Jeff Daube How to be a good neighbor: An investigation of associational resistance through plant community characteristics Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Sarah Romy Integrative Strategies for Remediating Allelopathy: Physicochemical and Biological Approaches Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Yairely Marchan Interactions between Midwest flora & fauna Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Catherine Hu Native plants and pollinators in Chicagoland Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Rika Mizoguchi Population health and demographics of semi-urban snake communities in Cook County, Illinois Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Liz Hucker Promoting bog conservation through botanical illustration Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Cael Dant Seasonal Use of DuPage County Savanna Preserves by Red-Headed Woodpeckers Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Derek Rosenberger • Charlie Leys • Sam Elsen Seeing the whole pitcher: understanding the relationship between the purple pitcher plant and its microbial communities Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Cael Dant Springtails: The Ancient Key to Boosting Global Biodiversity Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Alexander Czempinski Supporting Monarch Population Growth in an Urban Environment Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Edwin Quiroz 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 The effect of urbanization intensity on bumblebee-plant network structure and floral resource topological roles Rooms 21-23 & 32-34K.C. Carter The impact of competition with pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata) and invasive cattail (Typha × glauca) on the growth of northern wild rice (Zizania palustris) Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Megan Wenner Tiny Remnants Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Allison Hausladen Unearthed: Art and Transformation Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Pamela Sloan