We go to the part of the Salt Creek complex in the northeast corner, often, but here, we approached Brownell Woods from the east side of 394! following the equestrian trail under the freeway.
First you walk through an old plantation,
under the freeway,
and back out on the west side, to some strange sights,
but also some familiar ones.
Do you ever get tired of the bottle gentians? Me neither.
and there is so much else this season, too!
We hadn’t been to the south part of Beaubien in years. We thought we might get a chance to see lots of roosting birds in the trees, but I think we were too early in the evening.
We wanted to get close to the Little Cal so we went down by the railroad tracks, and like most days we CRAC, we thank ourselves for wearing muck boots.
I couldn’t get a good picture of the juvenile bald eagle we saw, but I promise it was there! The trees around this wetland are just the spot to rest and recuperate before going for a hunt over the Little Calumet River.
I’ve spent many months at Marian Byrnes Park- mostly doing research and botanizing. It’s where my favorite slag wetland is, a secret garden hidden behind a lovely woodland stroll. Just a few years ago, this park was pretty overgrown and inaccessible. Now it’s such a gem, with great shaded walking trails in a narrow savanna-esque strip, right off of 103rd.
Out on the slag, we see a human-modified ecosystem, just like the woodland (which of course is a highly managed park) but it’s such an unfamiliar landscape. You see remnants of its recent past as a flydumping mecca and plants that looks like weeds on concrete.
But with little human intervention for several decades in the management of this ecosystem, one could argue it’s more “natural” than the familiar tall trees and open understory along the path.
Black Partridge Woods has beautiful spring ephemerals and real nice topography –geology makes these ravines possible!
Fields of wood betony are just finishing flowering; bumble bees still want them!
I had to start with the coolest thing we saw on our foray: woodcock eggs! We flushed their parents out of the brush from like 100 yards away. Questionable parenting.
St. Michael’s Church.
Some tiny buddies.
Moss is a critical early successional component of the ecosystem, accumulating organic matter than other species can eventually grow in.
A deer path through the sumac forest. Always follow the deer path.
Gothic Calumet.
Would you believe there are orchids and rare sedges on this slag wetland at Big Marsh?
I present to you the strappy leaves of Spiranthes cernua. 
…
This might be one of my most favorite photos at Big Marsh. I spent 10s of hours at this site during the summer of 2018 and literally never saw a bird in this tree! The site always seemed quiet in animal life, but rich in plant life.
Walk south from the southern end of Wolf Lake, past the roads that peek into residential pockets, past what was overgrown vacant lots — it’s all being rewilded, connecting Wolf Lake to Powderhorn Lake (fig 1). It expands the local wetland complex, but in a different direction than the historical baseline. Why? Because Powderhorn Lake is human-constructed, so there was never a connection between these bodies of water before.
We started in the greenspace north of Powderhorn Lake (though quite brown this time of year).
We came out from the buckthorn and Phragmites to a railroad track on the north side of Powderhorn Lake.
The dune and swale that you see on the map, looking like a ridged swamp, to the west of Powderhorn Lake- that dune and swale is still there! This is a long finger of oak savanna heading to the southeast.
When it’s just hanging out with itself (slag poured onto slag), the potential toxic stuff, heavy metals, etc. — it’s not going anywhere. But when ATVs ride up and down a slag heap, or when exposed slag leaches into Indian Creek, it can become a health hazard.
Vegetation can help with this!
Did I mention it’s a Superfund site?
Calumet Region Adventure Club 