NRC ecologists recently coordinated volunteer efforts at the annual Chicago Wilderness Corporate Council workday events in southeast Wisconsin and northeast Illinois.  Aaron Feggestad and Sarah Kraszewski worked with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and local volunteers to hand clear weedy trees and shrubs from an oak opening in the Kettle Moraine State Forest in Walworth County, Wisconsin.  After the cutting was completed, the group went in search of rare plants in the diverse wet-mesic prairies of the Scuppernong River natural areas.  Their hunt was a huge success, with the group finding blooming white lady’s slipper (Cypripedium candidum), downy yellow painted cup (Castilleja sessiliflora), and kitten tails (Besseya bullii), all very rare plants in Wisconsin.

 

NRC's Eric Parker led a group of volunteers at several sites in northeast Illinois.  Work included finalizing installation of thousands of native plant plugs around a pond edge and re-locating native woodland plants out of an area threatened by development.