Volunteers plan restoration work at Springbrook Prairie

For residents who want a prairie for their little house to stand on or near, here's a New Year's suggestion: Pledge to join a group of hardy volunteers Saturday, Jan. 7, when they tackle some restoration work at the Springbrook Prairie Forest Preserve in Naperville.

"We'll be doing some brush clearing and cutting down shrubs that are invading our habitat out there," said Joe Suchecki, the preserve's volunteer steward. "There're lots of areas where we need to cut back the brush. It's dormant for the wintertime, but it's certainly alive."

Volunteers will be given the tools they'll need to remove plants that are threatening native plants and the natural ecosystem of the prairie.

"We have hand tools, either hand saws or loppers to cut them down," he said. "Most of the plants are less than an inch in diameter."

Suchecki has been caring for Springbrook for decades, leading restoration workday volunteer teams and periodically going out on his own.

"I've been doing this for over 20 years. I've been involved for a long time," he said. "It's just very rewarding to work on a local level and restore the natural habitat that's becoming very scarce in Illinois and throughout the Midwest."

Environmental indicators such as the size of certain bird populations show that past efforts have paid off, he said.

An avid birder, Suchecki said his interest in preserving bird habitat initially inspired him to get active with prairie restoration.

Since he began working at the 1,832-acre preserve, he said several species' counts have increased, including those for the eastern meadowlark and the bob-o-link.

Threats to the prairie sometimes result from well-intentioned landscaping trends.

Years ago, he said, the invasive buckthorn plant was choking out native plants at Springbrook, but that's not so much the case these days.

"We don't have much of that, but now we're getting tremendous numbers of ornamental pears," he said.

An explosion of ornamental Bradford pear trees sounds, on the surface, like a sweet idea. Their flowering white blooms create a pleasant spring spectacle.

But these nonnative plants are invasive to the point that they crowd and kill indigenous prairie plants.

Suchecki said pear trees have proliferated, sometimes aided by deliberate plantings in parkways and residential yards.

"They were supposed to be sterile and not reproduce," he said.

But nature found a way and in the past five years or so, he said, the trees have sprung up in great numbers.

Seeds are spread by wind gusts and by birds that eat the trees' fruit and then deposit the seeds in the ground via their droppings. The seeds need little encouragement to take root and flourish.

"They grow easily and quickly," he said.

After Saturday's workday, Suchecki said he and other properly licensed volunteers will treat the freshly chopped stumps to prevent regrowth.

"Pretty much all the woody stuff, if you don't herbicide it, it just keeps coming back," he said. "It's a constant battle to keep woody plants under control."

Suchecki said volunteers should dress appropriately.

"The most important thing is dressing warmly enough, most importantly a good pair of warm boots. You can't come out in running shoes, you won't last very long," he said.

If extreme weather prevails, the workday will be canceled. Though there is no fee to participate, volunteers are asked to register in advance.

Volunteers typically include corporate groups, students who need to fulfill public service requirements and people simply motivated by a desire to preserve natural areas, he said.

Volunteers often spot wildlife on workdays, even in January, Suchecki said, including red-tailed hawks, harriers, short-eared owls and mice.

"You can see rabbits, coyotes and deer out there on some of the trips," he said.

Volunteer workdays are held throughout the year at Springbrook Prairie and other forest preserves throughout the DuPage County Forest Preserve District. For details, visit www.dupageforest.org.

If you go

What: Volunteer Restoration Workday

Where: Springbrook Prairie Forest Preserve, Naperville

When: 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Jan. 7

Cost: Free, open to ages 8 and older; younger than 18 with an adult

Registration: (630) 206-9630 or www.dupageforest.org