Tour the Oak Savanna - July 3rd, before fireworks show

The Maine East Ecology Club will be holding a fundraiser for their Oak Savanna restoration project on July 3rd from 7-9pm prior to the fireworks show. We will be leading tours through our nature preserve on Dempster & Dee.  Tour leaders will walk the trail and introduce visitors to a Google Map plant identification guide for easy use via cell phone or ipad. We will also introduce children to this enchanted habitat being restored for a wide variety of native Illinois and migratory animals.  Kids will also receive materials to help them learn about this endangered ecosystem.

We have completed the first step in a series of landscaping restoration make-overs.  European Buckthorn, the invasive shrub that has been plaguing the Chicago Forest Preserves for decades, has been cut out of the nature preserve.  The shrub was brought to the U.S. by early settlers but has become a relentles invasive plant affecting woodland areas in Northeastern Illinois by crowding out the native grasses, flowers, and trees, hogging sunlight, and competing for resources in the soil.

For about the last 25 years students and staff have labored with cutting and prescribed burning to remove it each fall but if not consistently and heavily managed the buckthorn can persist and dramatically affect biodiversity and aesthetic quality in an ecosystem.  That's why the group is embarking on a major restoration and fundraising effort.

The Ecology Club's goal is to renew this valuable resource for the benefit our students, staff, community and native critters. Imagine a place to go and learn about poetry in English class, capture images in Photo, count species in Biology, or analyze water quality in Geology, Environmental Science, or Chemistry classes.  Future plans include fundraising in order to do restoration work and install a new fence, path, trail signs, and deck with seating around the pond. 

In order to bring back this historical native landscape we will be creating a Friends of the Oak Savanna network where those who contribute to our cause will recieve biannual updates on our progress.