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Summer
2000
A Plant
Rescue
Volunteers gather in wooded land slated
for housing development to save native plants from the bulldozer
In
this millennial summer we think of past and future. The
volunteers probably had such thoughts as they dug up rare
plants in an ancient oak woodland in Rolling Meadows. They
were participating in a "plant rescue" organized
by the Wild
Ones Natural Landscapers.
 Much
of the flora of this ancient woodland was bulldozed the
next day for a housing subdivision. It’s bittersweet
work for the plant rescue team. The plants dug the day before
the bulldozers arrived are growing now in the natural landscaping
of the volunteers’ yards, or in restoration areas of
restored forest preserves. But it hurts to see a majestic
woodland destroyed.
Every
house and business in the Chicago region replaces some woodland,
prairie, or wetland. Yet most nature was destroyed generations
ago. Now we look at what’s left and wonder to how to
save as much as we can.
For
new development, the Biodiversity
Recovery Plan of Chicago Wilderness recommends recycling
the land that’s already lost its nature. The inner
city "brownfields" need to be reclaimed from toxics
and become urban parks, or homes, or employment. Suburban
development does not need to destroy rare ancient nature.
If the best natural ecosystem land is protected as forest
preserve, or park, or naturally landscaped neighborhood,
nature can actually benefit from the coming of development
to an area that’s mostly corn and soybeans — if
the newcomers go easy on the pesticides.
The developer in Rolling Meadows gave homeowners the option
of natural landscaping or lawn. Temporary orange fencing
marked off the lots where the owners chose lawn. That’s
where the plant rescuers dug.
Volunteers
from Wild Ones Natural Landscapers saved trillium and other
plants from land planned for houses and lawns. Some future
homeowners chose to keep their natural landscaping in place.
Photos by Pat Wadecki.
This
woods was an extraordinarily rich one. Thousands of white
and red trilliums, Jacob’s ladder, Dutchmans’
breeches, yellow woodland violets, and other species typical
of woods grew side by side with thousands of shooting stars
and other species typical of fine prairies. The old trees
were massive noble bur oaks. This site had seen the buffalo
and fire for centuries.
Rich
open old woods are rare. The fire was crucial to maintaining
them. The owners of this site had mowed occasionally to
keep the brush down, and the spring flora survived well.
It’s hard today to find an open woods that also has
a rich summer flora — plants like fire pink, grove
sandwort, violet cress, broad-leaved puccoon, and pale vetchling.
But in our forest preserve oak woods that are managed by
fire, these plants, and the animals they support, are gradually
making a comeback. Sometimes with the help of a little plant
rescue.
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