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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.

Sima Shah

Kiwi versus the Paintbrush

Traditional artist and printmaker

Chicago

https://kiwiversusthepaintbrush.myportfolio.com

Find me on

About me

I am a traditional illustrator, printmaker and nature journalist who cares deeply about social justice and land conservation. I have my certificate in traditional botanical arts from the Chicago Botanic Garden. The last several years I have been illustrating the plants in Illinois Beach State Park. I spend a lot of time seeking out green spaces and observing the natural world. I am endlessly fascinated and in awe by native plants, birds and bugs. I keep a nature journal which documents my relationship through words, illustrations, maps, patterns and numbers. During the day, I am a pharmacist with a MPH who focuses much of her time on data and advocacy. Talk to me about your nature journal- what tools do you use? How do you document? Why do you keep a journal? What would I find in your journal? What do you write about?

9:00am CST

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

10:15am CST

Engaging Refugees: The Power of Place-Based Education for Newcomer Populations Room 43Shana Wills • Jacqui Ulrich • Lina Al Maeeni • Payman Rajaie • Wagdi Abdelmouli 500 Species on 20 Acres: Re-Inventorying “The Island of Rare Plants” Room 26Ryan Sorrells Buffalo Grove Prairie: 35 years of TLC for a Small Remnant in Suburbia Room 41Jeff Weiss • David Bart Arena Birds: Saving the Uncommon Nighthawk Rooms 52, 53 - Avian Collective presented by Illinois Audubon SocietyStephanie Beilke • Mason Fidino • Edward Warden 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

The Enchantment of Light: How Earth’s Star Can Bring Magic to Your Nature Experience Room 40Mike MacDonald 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 Becoming a Watershed Warrior Room 43Gary Swick • Courtney Boe • Katelin Shields Johnson Long-term monitoring of grassland bird populations at Springbrook Prairie Forest Preserve, DuPage County Room 49Joe Suchecki Sharing our Shore and the Successful Return of the Endangered Piping Plovers Back to Waukegan Beaches Rooms 52, 53 - Avian Collective presented by Illinois Audubon SocietyDiane Rosenberg • Glen Moss • Brad Semel • Carolyn Lueck • Lisa Rundle

12:30pm CST

Launching the Illinois Native Plant Conservation Alliance Room 28Brian Charles

1:15pm CST

Biodiversity Surveys & Zines Room 51Ayesha T. Qazi-Lampert Plants of Concern: Community Science Rare Plant Monitoring in Action Room 44Christopher David Benda • Gretel Kiefer • Grant Fessler 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

2:15pm CST

Exploring floral networks for bees, beetles, flies, wasps, ants, and bugs Rooms 24, 25Angella Moorehouse • K.C. Carter Eco-restoration in Chicagoland and Southern India: A personal journey Rooms 54, 56, 58Sai Ramakrishna Birds and Biodiversity: Protecting and Restoring Habitat for Grassland Birds in the Tallgrass Prairie Region Room 44Jaron Cook

3:15pm CST

The Non-Filmmaker’s Guide to Filmmaking Room 49Bob Dolgan Following Nature's Calendar: A Long-term Phenology Project to Monitor Seasonal Changes and Inform Management Practices Room 29Adam Rembert The Chicago Region - A Critical Migratory Bird Corridor: Habitat Management Needs Room 46Eric Secker • BOB FISHER

4:15pm CST

Community Roots: Bottom-up Approaches to Tree Stewardship and Advocacy Room 41Mia Howerton • Sam Works • Varak Bosnoian • Paul Gordon Community Science as an Avenue for Mutually Beneficial Relationships Between People, Plants and Pollinators Room 42Nicole Machuca • Mario Longoni