When the Cook County Forest Preserve District acquired the Poplar Creek Preserve near Hoffman Estates, most of the property was old cornfields growing up to weeds. The preserve is a big piece of land. It measures about 3.5 miles east to west and about 2.5 miles north to south. Only four roads run through it, two from north to south and two from east to west.
Work began in the summer of 1989, when two interns paid by the Nature Conservancy began clearing the invading buckthorn out of the grove. Volunteers were solicited from neighboring towns to carry on the work on a long-term basis. Today more than 100 people are regularly involved with various aspects of the project.
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I took a look at Poplar Creek a few weeks ago. It was my first visit since 1989. Significant changes are already visible there, although parts of it look like weed patches that only a real prairie zealot could love. However, I know that the weedy look is only temporary–an unavoidable awkward stage, like adolescence, that will soon pass.
There are advantages and disadvantages to both. With successional restoration, you can establish populations of conservative prairie species without waiting for big bluestem or Indian grass to get big enough to provide a prairie matrix. It is difficult to use successional restoration on large sites, however, because the work all has to be done by hand. Beginning from bare ground allows you to use tractors and other mechanized equipment and plant substantial acreage.
The list includes such prairie specialties as eastern meadowlark, bobolink, and savanna sparrow, wetland birds like the sedge wren, and in the oaks, the blue-gray gnatcatcher. Poplar Creek is also the only known nesting site in Cook County for the common snipe.
So, like Janura himself, the issue is complicated. He seemed to feel perfectly comfortable operating in a system where patronage was a fact of life, but he also tried to do some good. He could be very difficult. The first words he ever spoke to me were not “Hello, how are you?” but “Why are you trying to destroy the forest preserves?”
