Deb, or just plain "Petro" as she preferred to be called, was an extraordinary — perhaps legendary — character. On her 46th birthday, she joked that each of her legs was 23. Those of us who had the privilege of working with Deb can twist her gag into a simple truth: In Deb's 50 years of life, she gave at least 100 years of help to the natural places she loved.

	The burn queen with a baby fox snake. Photo by John Ayres.

In 1990, Deb helped found the Palos Restoration Project. As volunteer steward of Cap Sauers Holdings, a forest preserve in southwest Cook County, Deb directed restoration work on 1,500 acres with co-steward Rich Hyerczyk. As the regional steward in the Palos/Sag Valley, Deb played a major role in the work at more than a dozen sites, supervising restoration projects, buying supplies, organizing interns and volunteers, and providing expert advice. Stewards throughout the county recognized her pickup truck.

Deb worked at Amoco's audiovisual department for years before taking a buyout package in 1995. She spent her last years doing what she loved, working as a restoration technician in The Nature Conservancy's Markham Prairies.

A country girl from Indiana, Deb chose to live in Chicago. Deb always retained her childhood love for squiggly critters and for kids. Through her eight years of field-based teaching as a docent with the Forest Preserve District's Mighty Acorns program (she volunteered with the program since its creation), she exposed many urban kids to nature. I remember her telling me with great glee after one Mighty Acorns outing how the Hispanic kids called her "loco." Deb was crazy with a love of life and nature.

Deb Petro's knowledge of Chicago Wilderness seemed nearly encyclopedic. Whatever plant someone mentioned, she knew where a population grew and how to determine if its seeds were ripe. Such knowledge helped her discover the state-threatened false-eared foxglove at Santa Fe Prairie, one key factor in saving that property from development. At the end of her life, Deb was working toward a second masters degree, in soil and ecological restoration at Northeastern Illinois University. Her nearly completed thesis explored the movement of water through soil.

In 1997, Deb was appointed to serve on the President's Community Advisory Council on Land Management in Cook County by Commissioner Jerry Butler, bringing her expertise and passion for habitat restoration — and a heroic ability to speak her mind — to a different form of public service. In gratitude, Cook County Board President John Stroger recently designated an annual Deb Petro Workday in her memory.

But perhaps Deb's most notable expertise was natural-area fire management. She became the undisputed authority on controlled burns in the Palos region, taking countless classes at her own expense and gaining experience at burns across Chicago Wilderness. She rightly dubbed herself a "burn queen." Deb had a heart for the wholeness of nature and never limited her love to just an individual deer or tree. She understood the role death plays in life. "Things die," she said with a shrug after she got sick, "that's okay."

So many memories... Deb nibbling poison ivy early in spring. She said eating it helped her build an immunity... Deb's mother's amazing tale of how at age 13 months Deb scaled a fence and made her way to a neighbor's turkey house to shake a stick at the birds...The rainbow animal decals Deb tattooed onto her bare scalp after the cancer came. Deb Petro: 1952–2003. You don't ever replace a person like Deb; you just thank God you had her in your life.

—Joe Neumann