News

Land Audit Guides More Conservation

In the summer of 2007, 76 monitors collected detailed vegetation data at 147 plots within the priority conservation lands of the Forest Preserve District of Cook County. These monitors, part of the Cook County Land Audit, were on a mission: to help the district fulfill its core mission to acquire, restore, and preserve its lands in their natural state. By assessing the condition of the preserves countywide and tracking progress over time, the audit monitors and scientists help district staff to guide management decisions and provide accountability to the public on how well we are protecting public conservation lands.

In the upcoming years, the district has determined to focus primarily on areas with the highest conservation potential, harboring the most important communities of plants or animals.

The 2007 Audit determined the condition of plant communities within these priority conservation lands, using the standard vegetation monitoring protocol for the entire Chicago Wilderness region. Developed by scientists from the Illinois Natural History Survey, Audubon–Chicago Region, and the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, this protocol provides a comprehensive means of sampling the herbaceous plants, shrubby understory, and canopy trees within a single sample plot.

The study found that common buckthorn is by far the most widespread plant species on district lands, and its prevalence has increased in the last six years. Poison ivy, a plant that thrives in degraded, heavily shaded conditions, also has increased.

More than 70 percent of the district’s priority lands showed only fair or poor floristic quality of wildflowers, grasses, and other herbaceous plants.

Historic, keystone oak trees were also found to be regenerating poorly, as audit monitors did not find a single seedling of bur oak or white oak in the understory.

But there are bright spots in the district. Where sustained, dedicated management and stewardship have been applied, the lands are healthy, diverse, and thriving, with young oaks, a full suite of understory plants, and invasives under control.

According to Director of Resource Management Dick Newhard, the district plans to use this information to help determine where budgeted ecological management money will be spent and to get more management to the places that need it. They will be collaborating with their many partners, including the volunteer network, who see these degraded lands as a shared responsibility.

— Karen Glennemeier