See the restoration of Garfield Harley Pond & Woods on April 21 walk
On Saturday, April 21, Garfield Farm Museum in Campton Hills will offer a Woodland Restoration Walk of Garfield Harley Pond and Woods at 9 a.m.
With the late onset of spring, the first evidence of the spring bloom should be begun as the chorus frogs sing in the vernal pool.
This winter, thanks to an Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation Stewardship Challenge Grant, Pizzo & Associates were contracted to clear over 9 acres of invasive underbrush in this remnant woodland.
A particular thick stand of the invasive burning bush, which is a popular yard planting, was cut and herbicides were applied.
Another major offender, the nonnative honeysuckle was also attacked by this natural area restoration firm based in Leland, Ill.
Eagle Scout projects by Jim Neece, Connor Jacobs, Dalon Jeppesen, and Mike Anderson will be seen. Participants will caravan to the woods, a mile from the museum and then return to Garfield to look at other keep flowering areas.
Woodland plants must take advantage of the still bare trees as once the tress leaf out, less sun hits the woodland floor. These plants know as ephemerals must quickly bloom and set seed before their source of energy, the sun, is blocked by leafy boughs overhead. Invasive brush prevents such light.
Red and white trilliums, yellow bellwort, trout lilies, rue and woodland anemones, toothwort, swamp buttercups are just some of the spring plants that are soon to bloom and the false Solomon seals. Jacob's ladders, blue-eyed grass, and marsh marigolds will probably not appear before May 1. Recent years the bloom has begun as early as April 1, though normally May 1 is the peak of the spring flowering in the woods.
Jerome Johnson, museum biologist and lifelong native of the area, will lead the walk through the properties.
Binoculars are welcome to spot any migrant warblers or shore birds. Participants should wear appropriate clothing for walking through briers and wet soils. Insect repellent is encourage to discourage biting insects.
To understand the history of the region one must understand the environment that was here that produced some of the moist fertile soils in the world drawing settlers from the east. As a historically intact former Illinois 1840s farmstead Garfield Farm Museum offers a chance to discover what life was like during early settlement of northern Illinois.
Garfield Harley Pond and Woods is named after Timothy Garfield's great grandson just as Garfield Harley was named after his mother's family. Timothy's son Jefferson Adams Garfield bought the woods and farm about 1863.
The walk is $6 or $3 for children under 13 years of age. It will be a three-hour hike but after returning from Harley Woods, hikers may leave and the hike at Garfield Farm will resume.
Garfield Farm Museum is located at 3N016 Garfield Road, off Route 38, five miles west of Geneva.
Reservations can be made at info@garfieldfarm.org or by calling (630) 584-8485 so as not to overbook the walk.
Garfield Farm Museum is a 375-acre historically intact former 1840s prairie farmstead and teamster inn that volunteers and donors are preserving as an 1840s living history museum. The museum is five miles west of Geneva, off Route 38 on Garfield Road.
Visit www.garfieldfarm.org or www.facebook.com/GarfieldFarmMuseum/.