Spring 2003

At The Grove, preventive burning, tree girdling, and planting native species have opened up the canopy and brought back wildflowers and birds

Let There Be Light!

Some restoration efforts have been timid, out of fear that the changes will upset people who have grown accustomed to a certain look — even if the main component of that look is invasive species. Not so at The Grove.

Starting in 1998, Grove director Steve Swanson and his staff have been ambitiously restoring 110 of the site's 124 historic acres, using nearly every proven technique available. They have blasted away at invasive brush by hand and with a massive machine known as a Seppi — a cross between a bulldozer and a Cuisinart. On a revolving schedule, parts of the prairie and woodland benefit from controlled burns every year. The staff have collected native seed on-site and scattered it across areas that for the last 40 years were turf-grass lawns. The staff have also modified old drain tiles to restore the property's wetlands and have girdled large invading cottonwoods and elms.

The land seems to remember its past well. When Grove staff regraded the front lawn to restore the prairie wetlands that once greeted the Kennicott family, "the water was back within hours," says Swanson. In the first year after the staff girdled some of the cottonwoods and elms that had grown too dense in the wet woods, red-headed woodpeckers returned after 20 years of absence. Young oaks, previously shaded by the invasives, popped up after the woods opened up, and large numbers of great white trilliums and cardinal flowers emerged as well.

"We did a pretty aggressive job, coupled with education of the public and the community, so we could turn the tide about how the public was feeling about restoration," recalls Swanson. Grove staff led walks, held lectures, talked to community groups, put up kiosks in town, and informed neighbors well ahead of time for each stage of the work. The Grove's approach has been so successful that the Chicago Wilderness coalition has designated it a "model site."

"The great oaks and the lay of the land were Kennicott's reason for settling here," says Swanson. "Through natural restoration, we're restoring the same rolling look to the landscape that Kennicott saw." They're also demonstrating that we can vigorously restore healthy habitat for the creatures that sang to Peattie — to be a spritely soundtrack for our noble vistas today.

—Don Parker