Grassland volunteers enjoy ‘best year yet’

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A silver-spotted skipper flies near a rough blazing star. | Supplied Photo

Updated: February 10, 2012 8:10AM

While traveling near the Orland Grassland area (104th Street to 108th Street, from 167th Street to 179th Street), you may have noticed some big construction equipment.

At first, it is alarming, in that some trees have been felled, and the landscape appears to be changing. But a quick tour of the Orland Grassland website and an email to Patricia Hayes provided accurate information.

After speaking with her — she is a wealth of knowledge on the area — all of my questions were answered. She said many of the trees that have taken root in the area are nonindigenous and invasive to the natural plants, insects and other wildlife struggling to survive. A Grassland press release said the invasive tree-clearing work began in mid-December and should be finished while the ground freezes this winter.

Restoring oak savanna and natural shrubland is the goal of this phase.

“Many people assume any tree is a good tree, but not so when it’s growing in the wrong place,” Hayes said.

Invasive “pole trees” are one of the biggest threats to the habitat at Orland. This winter’s brush and pole-tree removal isn’t intended to restore more prairie acres, but rather oak woodland, oak savanna and shrubland. Many of the site’s rare bird species and other wildlife depend on extensive stands of shrubs like hawthorns, wild plums, hazelnuts, sumacs and resprouting “oak grubs.”

“Even the oaks can’t reproduce and, indeed, lose all their lower limbs when fast-growing woody invasives take over,” said Audubon’s Stephen Packard.

Bur, black and scarlet oaks were the main trees of the area for thousands of years. They depend on occasional fire. Groves of bur oak will be one of the signature scenes of the Orland Grassland.

Packard suggested that people see what the finished ecosystem will look like in the impressive 26-foot mural at the Orland Park Public Library, 14921 S. Ravinia Ave.

“That artist walked the site with the volunteers, studied the Orland plan and really captured the spirit of it,” Packard said.

The Orland Grassland is maintained by volunteers who had “their best year yet” and were proud of the restoration’s success. Their latest accomplishment is the return of the endangered savanna blazing stars.

“We’ve been reveling in all the butterflies and birds and wildflowers we’re finally seeing, but were surprised by the dozens of endangered savanna blazing stars this year,” said volunteer and Plants of Concern monitor John Zawacki. “This plant thrives where the oak woods and savannas meet the prairie, at the edge,” he said.

The bright-purple spikes of chest-high flowers once were common in the Palos and Tinley areas, but the savanna blazing star has been shaded out from most sites.

“This plant was all but lost to our region because it thrives in the speckled sunlight between oak woodlands and savannas and the open prairie. That is what is being restored at Orland,” said Bill Fath, master steward of the donor site. “Oak woodland, savannas and shrublands need our help.”

The Orland Grassland volunteers praised the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for combining habitat restoration with their usual work of flood management and water-quality improvement.

“Huge masses of invasive shrubs not only kill out plant and wild life, they contribute to erosion,” Hayes said. “We’ve been cutting away at brush for almost 10 years. There are areas in the site that are vibrant with the results of our work, but it would have taken us many decades, even with the help of the Forest Preserve District and interns, to reach the point the corps has brought us to now.

“The volunteer group will still have much work to do every year, but the heavy lifting has been accelerated, and that’s good for us.”

Events showing off the site are planned for 2012. Anyone interested is invited. Also, volunteer groups meet the second and fourth Saturdays each month from 9 a.m. to noon, and the second Wednesday from 9 a.m. to noon. Call Hayes for more information at (708) 220-9596 or go to the website at www.orlandgrassland.org.