Spring 2002

Judy McCarter
Restoring a Pocket Woodland

In 1987 John and Judy McCarter moved to an older home on one and a half wooded acres in Northfield. They had first seen the property in late April of that year, the woods sprinkled with white and red trillium. "We were drawn to the home because of the woods," Judy recalled. "We loved the sense of space and the sense of nature surrounding us."

What Judy didn’t know was that her beloved woods, graced by towering oaks, were dying the slow death of many of this region’s woodlands. Over the next 10 years, as she refined the more formal areas of her landscape, she watched as the woods changed — and not for the better. The increasing deer population of the area had greatly diminished the profusion of wild flowers she had seen that first spring. The buckthorn were multiplying and growing larger, and other invasive species such as garlic mustard and gout weed were blanketing the understory. The woods seemed dense and impenetrable.

Then, in 1996, the Field Museum hosted a series of scholarly presentations on the ecology of this region. John McCarter had become president of the museum, and Judy spent the weekend attending the Chicago Wilderness symposium. Listening to the experts talk about the problems of oak woods, Judy realized that she was hearing a description of what was happening in her own back yard.

Judy called Tom Vanderpoel, an experienced restoration steward and land manager for Citizens for Conservation. By the winter of 1998, Judy had a restoration plan. That winter, all the large buckthorn were cleared. Down came four or five big cottonwoods. (Cottonwoods are fine trees, she explains, but in this upland oak woods, they were part of the problem.) Next came the Norway maples, 10 or 12 of those. Other small invasive trees were removed, too.

It was a big step, and as the saws buzzed, Judy had more than one moment of trepidation. Not surprisingly, one or two of Judy’s neighbors were initially alarmed by what they saw happening. What had taken 30 years to grow up and close in had disappeared in a day.

"In some ways I wish I had gone more slowly," Judy now says. "If you open something up, you do see things differently." But she also realizes that taking those first bold steps was an essential part of starting the process. "When there’s a buckthorn thicket and the leaves are green so late, you don’t get the texture of the woods. You see a forest, but you don’t see the trees."

In the spring she and John pulled smaller, new buckthorns by the roots, and they became garlic mustard warriors. They attacked the gout weed. They had a new sense of resolve to reclaim the woods. In areas where large spaces had opened up, Judy planted. In came two bur oaks and two swamp white oaks, three redbuds and two amalanchiers. Then, she waited and watched.

Under the open canopy, cow parsnip appeared. White and red trillium increased, along with May apples and wild geranium, swamp buttercup, Jack-in-the-pulpit — lots! — and false Solomon’s seal. A few scattered plants now became great waves as light and health returned to the understory. And partnering in this success was the Village of Northfield, which had begun culling the deer herd. By the spring of 2000, the change was even more dramatic. As the light filtered into the forest, new areas of wildflowers were popping up everywhere and the trees were shouting their own personalities.

Judy and John then staked out a walking path, following the contours of the land and putting down bark chips along its length. Now, as Judy walks through her woods, her wildflower books in her hand, she finds a constant source of interest and contentment. "Learning to read the landscape," she says, "to see these majestic old oaks and understand how they happened to be there in the first place — it just changed my perspective." Members of Judy’s garden club and neighbors walking the area also delight in the beauty of the woods and they have thanked her for her vision and hard work.

It’s an ongoing process and Judy and John plan to continue their efforts. "We want our children (they have three grown children, two sons and a daughter) and our grandchildren (their first grandson will be one this spring) to walk through the woods and enjoy knowing what’s here — the chokecherries, witch hazels, hop hornbeams, and of course, the oaks — and the wildflowers," Judy says. "We fell in love with the woods when we bought the house, but we had no idea what we had." With nature, as with people, understanding makes love richer.

— Debra Shore