Soccer girls clean up St. Charles park

Nearly 20 members of the Fox Valley Strikers U-16 girls soccer team skipped practice Saturday to help restore natural areas at Campton Hills Park in St. Charles. The special event was part of Make a Difference Day.

"We're having fun," said Shaylee Pedersen, 16, of St. Charles. "We decided to skip the nature walk."

Under the guidance of park district employees, Pedersen and her teammates used clippers and saws to remove large branches from buck thorn, autumn olive and a non-native species of honeysuckle, leaving only stumps. The stumps will be treated later with herbicide by staff.

Connor O'Brien, 13, a St. Charles resident and eighth-grader at St. Patrick Catholic School was helping clear away branches nearby.

"I was looking for a service project and I found this online," Connor said. "It's enjoyable and it's for a good cause. And we're learning a lot."

"It's better than selling pumpkins at the Jewel," said his father Tim, who had worked up a sweat despite the cool, cloudy conditions. "The park district doesn't have the manpower to do all this work, the government doesn't give them the money. So they rely on volunteers."

Park district officials say that restoration of the 250 acres of natural area at the park has been enhanced by thousands of hours of work by volunteers. The park features rolling hills, forest, prairies, savannas and wetlands that are home to varied plant and animal species.

According to Denis Kania, supervisor of the restoration department, the park district has only three full-time paid staff for restoration. Seasonal workers are hired during the summer months.

"This will help save our young oaks and hickory trees," Kania said. "Volunteering helps us, and it gives people a sense of community. It also helps them get a sense of the value of natural areas."

For information, visit www.st-charlesparks.org.