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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.

CL

Chris L

Spring Valley Nature Center - Schaumburg Park District

Environmental Education Instructor

About me

I work various roles at Spring Valley Nature Center, including as an Environmental Education Instructor. I also volunteer in Busse Woods doing habitat restoration in the Forest Preserves of Cook County. I love nature and animals, especially insects and herps. While I majored in History at Purdue, I added minors in Wildlife Science, Entomology, and Anthropology.

9:00am CST

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

10:15am CST

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

11:15am CST

The Enchantment of Light: How Earth’s Star Can Bring Magic to Your Nature Experience Room 40Mike MacDonald

12:00pm CST

Lunch Break Rooms 21-23 & 32-34

12:30pm CST

Inclusion Strategies for Early Childhood Programs Room 49Sarah Blazer • Kelly Reina • Jill Damato

1:15pm CST

Illinois & Beyond! Herpetological research at the Field Museum Room 45Sara Ruane • Arianna Kuhn • Madelynn Sinclair

2:15pm CST

Propagation of Hemi-parasitic Native Plants Room 28Luke Dahlberg

3:15pm CST

Natural History of Chicago Area Hunting Wasps and Parasitoids Room 50Terry Miesle • alan molumby

4:15pm CST

Mushrooms of Illinois Rooms 30, 31Andrew Miller

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 Building Resilience in the River's Shallows Using the Power of Plants Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Kristine Lorenzo Capture Rates of Four Species of Snakes Utilizing Plywood vs Rubber Artificial Cover Objects at The Morton Arboretum, Lisle, IL Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Jasmine Dwyer • Susan Lawrence 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 Interactions between Midwest flora & fauna Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Catherine Hu Invasional Meltdown of Plant Communities in Illinois Wetlands Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Coleman Earnest Native plants and pollinators in Chicagoland Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Rika Mizoguchi Orchid Appreciation Society Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Maggie Warren Photograms of native plants Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Ken Schaefer 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 Remote sensing to evaluate environmental damage in inaccessible areas: A Gaza wetland case study Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Laura Shihadah Seasonal Variations in Urban Wetlands Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Riley Coomer 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 Stewardship and Creating Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Sima Shah 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 effects of salinity levels on Invasive plant species Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Zaria George • Gabriela Nunez-Mir The Environmental Beauty of the Calumet Region Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Blake Lenoir Tiny Remnants Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Allison Hausladen Unearthed: Art and Transformation Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Pamela Sloan Urban Salt Marshes, Novel Ecosystem Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Payman Rajaie Using LiDAR as a method to detecting invasive shrubs in southern Illinois Rooms 21-23 & 32-34Ellie James