Greencorps Chicago, IL-Calumet, IN visits Midewin NTP for hands-on training in horticulture

By Michelle Tamez on Aug 8, 2010

Greencorps Chicago is the City of Chicago's community landscaping and job training program.

Article submitted by Janine Catchpole. Pictures by Raquel Garcia.

On August 4, 2010, the Calumet Crew from Greencorps Chicago - a group of seven men, two women and Project Coordinator Jerry Attere -- came to the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie to learn about herbariums and prairie plants. Greencorps Chicago is the City of Chicago's community landscaping and job training program. It offers horticultural instruction, plant materials and technical assistance to organizations that garden in public spaces-including schools, faith institutions, libraries, public housing communities and block clubs-as well as a green jobs training program for qualified individuals.

The Greencorps Chicago-Calumet (GCC) trainees were recruited through Safer Foundation which helps formerly incarcerated individuals develop marketable skills needed in Calumet, a south-side Chicago community. The GCC is training this crew in ecological restoration skills to help restore the natural heritage of the Calumet area. The USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station-- via the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) -- has funded the GCC through November 2011.

The Calumet region of northwest Indiana and southeast Chicago, IL was once home to a vibrant steel industry. But the region's deep history reveals it was part of a vast wetland network, perhaps the most extensive in the Midwest. The 2002 Calumet BioBlitz, an intensive biological inventory, identified more than 2,200 species in a 24-hour period at just two locations.

The GCC crew was welcomed to Midewin by Raquel Garcia, Recreation Technician, who guided the crew through the Welcome Center explaining Midewin's history from glacial times to the present. They went on a brief hike before the heat made outdoor activity difficult. The crew viewed a portion of the documentary America's Lost Landscape, The Tallgrass Prairie, produced by New Light Media, over lunch, after which Prairie Supervisor Wade Spang spoke to the group and answered questions before the classroom training began.

Victoria Crosley, Midewin Herbarium Volunteer, explained the historic role of herbaria and their importance to science. A herbarium is a collection of dried plants mounted, systemically classified and labeled for scientific studies. Crosley demonstrated techniques for preserving and studying the plant specimens. Crew members learned to use hand lenses at 10x power to learn more about prairie plants. Janine Catchpole, Biological Technician/Plants, handed out samples of mountain mint, Pycnanthemum virginianum, in mature bloom as well as small first-year plants. One crew member commented that the mint was sparkly, observing the glands on the leaf surface under a hand lens. More amazement was expressed as the crew discovered the complexity of composite flowers, examining both disk and ray flowers of Sullivant's coneflower, Rudbeckia fulgida sullivantii.

This first visit of the GCC crew to Midewin was the beginning of a continuing relationship with Midewin for hands-on ecological restoration training they can take back to the Calumet region. The crew will return to Midewin on August 23 to continue their on-the-ground education by planting the last section of a new pollinator garden near the River Road seedbeds under the direction of Catchpole.

For more information about Greencorps Chicago, go to www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/doe/provdrs/nat_res/svcs/greencorps_chicago.html.

For more information about the Calumet region, go to www.calumetstewardshipinitiative.org.