Thornton Quarries, IL • September 2024

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we drove all the way along thornton-lansing road, ignoring our usual stop at the fairy ponds, and drooling at the restored forest preserve to the south;

(c) Google Maps

then turned south, wiggling beside, and then across, thorn creek. (I was focused on driving so these are all snips from google street view:)

(c) Google Maps

“and where,” I mused, “are the quarries?” So we drove further west and my god they are huge. hidden, sloppily, by recruits from the local seed pool, or so completely by earthen berms, that it’s not clear exactly where they are.

(c) Google Maps

then we noticed a lookout on the east side of this southern quarry. no one else was around.

we were unable to actually access the lookout, but it’s clear it wasn’t too long ago that people were invited into this space by manicured junipers and fossils. what a view it must have been!

unfortunately there was not an easy way to bypass the fence, so we walked tamely back east, along the mowed grass and gravel, both dusty. it’s been weeks without rain. the young trees – ash, tree of heaven, buckthorn – sadly hung their leaves, in heavy yellows and reds.

It’s not a place where I’d like to fall in, but nothing is more inviting than restricted access…

Burnham Prairie, IL • April 2024

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We came up through the south end of Burnham Prairie, over several sets of railroad tracks. There was no parking lot; it just seemed like a close spot based on Google Maps.

We found a recent burn by Com Ed,

and skirted the wetlands of the Illinois State Nature Preserve.

We turned back and drove up to the north end of Burnham Prairie, well-hidden in the furthest reaches of residential Burnham, abutting the Grand Calumet River.

As we approached the slag prairie I realized I’d forgotten how much like Mars this slag is: everything is very stunted (very clear in cottonwoods); spotted knapweed is a champ and brings all the pollinators to the yard; there are a few Liatris, lots of whorled milkweed, some sumac; mosses making the barrens less barren.

Check out another visit to the same site a few years ago: Burnham Prairie, IL • March 2016

Indian Ridge Marsh, IL • March 2024

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A recent controlled burn here has left a patchwork of new growth of sedges, rushes, and grasses, which will be punctuated with fireworks of colorful flowers later in the year.

other fun finds included:
a well supported bench on high – probably useful for waterfowl hunting.

a spontaneous terrarium.

nice views.

Acme Steel Coke Plant, IL • November 2023

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Coking is part of the steel-making process. So the “steel industry waste” with spontaneous vegetation at this Acme Steel site is not slag, like at most other sites on the Slag Map, but what often looks like charcoal briquets made of fly ash.

We found a snake friend taking advantage of the raking sunlight.

Check out another visit to the same site a few years ago: Indian Ridge Marsh and beyond, IL • November 2020

Sand Ridge, Calumet City, IL • April 2023

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It’s that time of year again – spring ephemerals at Sand Ridge. They never get old.

upland woodland friends, sprouting from under the oak leaves.

here’s the hummocks that enable the fen orchid

this little wetland is on sandy soil in a swale among the aspens.

a younger grove is undergoing restoration and in a decade or so, may harbor high quality orchids and sedges like this one.

South Central Wolf Lake, IL • January 2023

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A boat launch at Wolf Lake and a hydrological connection to Powderhorn Lake are new initiatives by the Forest Preserves and State Park. The connection between these bodies of water is an important one in reconstituting the wetland complex that has characterized the Calumet Crescent in the last 10,000 years.

Looking south towards Powderhorn, this new naturalized channel was constructed in an empty, perennially flooded lot. This green infrastructure is beneficial to the surrounding human community (decreasing local flooding) and connecting the animal communities.

Walking north, a buckthorn protected path affords coverage for waterfowl hunters (remember there is a gun club close by and hunting is legal in William Powers State Park) or coyotes, flanked by the transition zones between land and lake.

The real action though comes from the beavers. We’ve seen beaver dams around Powderhorn Lake in the past – I wonder if these beaver clans were already connected overland, or if the coming months will be first contact between the populations! I hope someone is using this behavioral, range, and host tree preference data to learn lots about these local ecosystem builders!

With no one else around, there was a liminal feeling to the masses of Phragmites topped with a cloudy gauze covering the winter afternoon sun.

Slag Cliffs/Vet’s Park, Chicago, IL • September 2022: revisiting an orchid hypothesis

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Remember earlier this year when I mused on whether the slag depression with Phragmites and grasses west of the slag cliffs might foster a Spiranthes population? MY FRIENDS, IT DOES.

I parked across the railroad tracks and walked in near the hay bales. I audibly squealed when I saw the first orchid! Check out the video below where I get very excited and wax romantic about this little mesic slag landscape.