Volunteers Help Midewin NTP Grow!
By Michelle Tamez on Jun 6, 2010
Plant Monitors get organized before starting their plots (L to R: Mike Rzepka, Don Nelson, Tatiana Skyba, Gail Pyndus).
Len LeClaire identifies and calls out plant species.
Four Plant Monitors uncover the species in their plot.
Midewin NTP is working toward an unprecedented goal: a landscape-scale native prairie and wetland restoration on over 18,000 acres of former army arsenal land- Volunteers help Midewin Succeed!
Who in the world would want spiderworts, rattlesnake-masters, and showy tick-trefoil all over their backyard? Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, of course! These are just a few of the over 300 native plants that Midewin is trying to restore on this "healing" prairie.
During the months of June, July and August volunteers endure the hot sun and high humidity in order to help gather important data about the restoration projects happening on the Prairie. They work in groups of three to five and comb through each plot along permanent transects, calling out and writing down each species they find. These volunteers are not botanists by trade, but have a passion for plants and spend time honing their plant lexicon for weeks before the monitoring begins.
They are part of the fourth year of plant monitoring along these transects which are located in Midewin's first restored prairie and wetland areas planted in 2004 and 2005. Midewin NTP horticulturist Eric Ulaszek explains, "We have baseline data from an adjacent nature preserve which is an original prairie remnant. We'll collect the data over the years and we'll have a record of how long it takes for the restored areas to resemble the remnant." Monitoring the restoration projects on the prairie is in essence, one large research project, or, one big exercise in adaptive management. "The results of the monitoring tell us what we're doing right and what we're doing wrong. For instance if there are certain species that aren't appearing and if our transects aren't getting more similar to the remnant prairie, we have to think more about what we're doing and maybe replant. The monitoring helps us adapt our management technique."
Ulaszek says that this monitoring can have an impact beyond Midewin's boundaries, "There is a lot of public land in this area, mostly state land but also county land. Monitoring helps this concept called the Prairie Parklands which is trying to make this a large area of restored and remnant prairie that can support the prairie ecosystem. As we gather the information from this monitoring, we can share it with others in our area, the Chicago Wilderness Area, and our monitoring results might help them make management decisions too." Chicago Wilderness is a partnership of more than 230 public and private organizations that work together in order to protect, restore, and manage the Chicago region's natural lands.