Our meetings are regularly held on the first Monday of each month. The June meeting will be held on Monday, June 7.
The WC has been working to improve the walking trails and your experience in our forest preserves. We have created “timber turnpikes” made of packed soil and wood chips secured with tree limb edging on the wettest parts of several East Woods trails. We added brown gravel to the Maple Avenue Extended entrance to the East Woods to stabilize this wet trail section. Maple Avenue Extended deeper into the East Woods is still very wet. We will continue with this trail maintenance project in the near future. We hope these improvements will make your forest preserves experience safer and more enjoyable.
Each Spring the WC schedules a West Woods Cleanup Day but this year, because of the pandemic, we do not want people to congregate in work groups even for this worthwhile effort. However, several members of the Woods Committee, who are fully COVID-19 vaccinated, will meet in the Maple Lake parking lot on Saturday morning, May 1 at 10:00 AM. We welcome other volunteers as individuals or in small family groups to join us. Please use face masks and socially distance as necessary. Bring work gloves, insect repellent, and bottled water. Large trash bags will be provided. In addition to the satisfaction of having created a cleaner forest area, you will be rewarded with a sense of peace and beauty from your experience with nature.
Great news! The Spring ephemerals are in their glory in both East and West Woods. Tiny pink Virginia spring beauty plants carpet the forest floor. Jack in the pulpit is starting to sprout. Cherry trees and dogwoods continue to provide color. Black haw viburnum, with umbrella shaped clusters of white flowers, are everywhere. In the West Woods, spicebush is filling the understory. We hope you can enjoy a unique Spring experience in our East and West Woods.