The Wild is Calling, and I Must Go.

by Dan Delaney 

“The mountains are calling, and I must go” is an oft-quoted statement by the naturalist and mountaineer John Muir. It’s a motto of those who want to get out there, to be immersed in nature, and often they head West. 

I was born in Chicago and love it but lived for four years in the Rockies during graduate school. The wildness of that place never left me. I was surrounded by people who were passionate about the mountains. Every Monday morning at school or work began with each of us recounting what we had done and where they had gone that weekend. For all of us, “the mountains” were shorthand for this total immersion in nature.

 

Since I’ve been back in Chicago I’ve hiked and camped the Midwest, canoed, become a windsurfer, become a birder. All of which has been great, but I had not in 40 years found the same immersion in the wild with others of a similar passion. That was until a good friend told me, “Dan, volunteer at this place called Somme. You’ll love it; it’s full of people like you – birders, backpackers, canoeists. Hurry up.”

 

Eighteen months ago, I followed him to Somme Woods, met that day’s team, and within minutes I was marching deep into the woods carrying a bow saw and a lopper. I spent three hours cutting down invasive buckthorn, sectioning dead ash trees and building up bonfires under the guidance of smart, friendly people. I was hooked. 

 

Surprisingly to me, one of the main ecological priorities at Somme is to remove invasive trees and burn them in bonfires. 

Now, each week my mind puts a different spin on Muir’s words. For me, it’s: The Wild is calling, and I must go.

So, what is Somme and what’s so special about it? 

 

Somme is nature, big enough to function for most species – and for me to get lost in.

It’s a combination of woodland, savanna, and prairie that totals 410 acres. And it’s in Northbrook! I had driven past it on Dundee Road many times and assumed it was a clutch of trees that would give way to houses in 30 yards or so. Far from it. It’s deep nature with rare ecosystems, endangered species, and mystery. East of Waukegan Road, it’s an open woodland, where we cut invasive brush to restore enough light for reproduction of the oaks, some of which are 200-300 years old. West of Waukegan is Somme Prairie Grove, where scattered oaks mingle with grasses that by August every year are taller than we are. Increasing numbers of rare animals and plants there show what 40 years of care by this team can do.

 

Somme is a cool culture

We come from all walks of life and all ages, from 16 to 80ish. It’s a warm and welcoming culture, and a learning culture, too. Your colleagues know a lot and can do a lot, but no one knows everything. We all encourage and need each other, so there are no dumb questions. You’re surprised at how much and how quickly you learn. Every workday has a ‘break time’ – an opportunity to sit on a stump or log and get to know each other. A core group comes regularly; others come when they can. When is the last time you made a new friend? I’ve made a dozen (and counting) at Somme.

 

Somme is a mission

We work together to restore ecosystems and biodiversity. Climate change and environmental degradation are massive global and national issues. Somme gives us a chance to take care of our part of the planet. We are restoring a prairie/savanna/woodland system so we’re keen to identify rare and native tree, shrub, wildflower, and grass species and help them thrive. Because we need to, we study. Muir’s full quote is, “The mountains are calling and I must go and I will work on while I can, studying incessantly.” At Somme we learn incessantly and put what we learn to work. We’re in touch with people at other sites doing similar work and discovering new ways to restore habitats and ecosystems.

This photo shows the crew gathering seeds.
It also shows the majesty of a thriving oak woodland.
Nice trees. Nice biodiversity. 

Somme is rugged

Somme gives you a chance to find your “inner Jack London.” Unlike London, writer of The Call of the Wild, you might at first see wilderness work in winter as challenging. But dress warm and you’ll find the experience initially thrilling, and then soon comfortable, to march into snowy woods from the trailhead with a bowsaw slung over your shoulder. We burn brush in bonfires and some of us actually cook food on them. Summer is for harvesting seeds and also the time for scything tall goldenrod, which can take over an area and blot out most other species. I was inspired to sketch the scene below to show how we work on such an area, bordered by railroad tracks frequented by freight trains. Falcons raising their young scream over our heads while we work. Laboring with an old scythe as a freight train passes does make you feel like you’re in a Jack London story. 

Somme feels easy

Volunteer work in Somme is well organized, by us volunteers. Each week there are three or four two- or three-hour “workdays”, and we’re notified by email about what’s planned for the coming week, together with compelling photos of the previous week’s sessions. Signing up for workdays via a simple reply couldn’t be easier. Some folks come every time. others come every couple months. Either way, your colleagues are always glad to see you.

 

Somme feels successful

Somme’s leaders have a plan, and it’s inspiring to feel a sense of progress week after week. Sometimes that feeling comes after a session when we’ve cleared the brush from a surprisingly large area. Other times, it comes when you return to an area where we spent months working and you’re almost shocked at the change: this former buckthorn thicket is now a riot of wildflowers and butterflies. Either way, Somme feels like a team sport, and we never lose. At the end of each session, we declare victory as a team.

 

Donna and Estelle hauling off a bag of invasive and malignant purple loosestrife.
It's a nasty invader, and they feel triumphant about conquering it.

Why Somme? Observations from the Crew : 

 

The Mission

“I’ve been hanging out in the woods ever since I was a kid. I used to ride my bike to the bike trails from Skokie to the North Branch trails. I ran away from home once, to the woods. I always enjoyed going to them. Now it’s a good way to contribute to making it nicer.” Russ

 

“More than anything. When I am outdoors, or camping and you know that feeling of awe, wonder or appreciation of beauty that you feel, when you are looking at a beautiful natural space. And I feel that that sensation sort of demands a response. And so, Somme is my way to do something about that feeling. Where I can help, I can act on it, I can get to know it better. It feels good to have a small tangible way that I can help serve the ecosystem of the whole world, but in my one tiny little way.” Steph

 

“I’ve been interested and concerned about climate change and I had always had a more global and super large scale view about fossil fuels and emissions. It just seemed so big, like I can vote about it but I can’t do much else except put my faith in the institutions to fix it. The knowledge that my presence there, my labor is going to restore an ecosystem; that’s something that I care about deeply. The knowledge that that’s what my three hours is going towards is great.” Josh, Jones Prep High School

 

“It was very hard to get my head around that there was no finishing point. And now I’m so accepting that this is just going to go on forever. We are never going to finish this job. We’re going to hand this off to Josh’s children. That took me a while to get that into my head, that this is so big.”  Estelle

 

“When I go to college this fall, I’ll be studying Environmental Science. Somme changed me. It helped me find a field I could be really interested in and take a chance on in college. It did that because it combined learning about the ecosystem and hands-on work.”  Andrew, Jones Prep High School

 

“When we are in an areas like Somme Prairie Grove and I hear, ‘This all used to be buckthorn’ it’s amazing to see beautiful areas of wild prairie plants growing. It awes me that it used to be so degraded and now is hugely beautiful. It sends shivers down my spine, the feeling that we’ve really made an improvement.”  Steve

 

The Experience

 

“I really like working with people. At Somme we talk a lot about what we’ve accomplished. I like collaborating a lot, especially to problem solve. It’s just so super exciting. When I come to Somme, I’m working with all these people who are super passionate, nice, and are thinking really hard about what we’re doing. I never doubt whether or not I am spending my time well. It feels like I’m doing the most important thing in the world.”   Rebeccah

 

“I had no idea what this entailed at first, but it was outside and sounded appealing. And I showed up and we picked stone seed in the Eagle Pond area. The seed made this delicious plinking sound when you put it in your bag. It was summer and I couldn’t hear or see any traffic. I was out in the middle of this big, beautiful place that I couldn’t believe was close to Chicago. I was pretty hooked.” Steph

 

“It’s cool that it reveals a whole other world that I never knew even existed before I started coming. It’s like you are united with all these people and everyone feels the same way about it that I do. Which is so cool, and you meet all these incredible people who bring their own expertise to it. It’s something special.”  Josh, Jones Prep High School

 

“When grade schools and high schools bring students out to Somme, there is a lot of opportunity for us to share our knowledge with the younger generation – to show them, teach them, work with them. I find that interesting, too.”  Steve

 

The Community

“You work with people from all different walks of life, from everywhere. People you wouldn’t normally run into. Different age groups, different religions, and races. I like the broad range of people. You can sit and talk to a high school kid like normal. When can you ever do that?”  Russ

 

“Oh my gosh, we have real friends that we’ve made out there. These are people I trust, enjoy being with, and if something came up and they needed something, I think that we’d all jump in and do whatever. It’s so cool.”  Estelle

 

“I think that people today are missing that sense of community, that something feels lacking. Somme fills that gap.”  Steph

 

“Without a doubt the community draws me to Somme. When you go there it’s a great mix of regulars and new volunteers. And you can clearly see them having a ball. They are working hard, but also catching up on the week. It’s like they are just hanging out with their friends. And that is really my favorite part, that you can do this cool work and also find a new community.”  Andrew, Jones Prep High School

 

Somme is calling

You don’t have to travel far to experience a total immersion in nature and heal a bit of Mother Earth with a group of fun and exceptional people. When I tell people what I’m doing, they often assume I’m volunteering in some other state. They can’t believe this is all so close to home.

 

Are you interested?

Just go down the road a little bit to Somme.

There’s a bow saw and a seed bag waiting.

One last photo
celebrating our break time treats
and a few of this post's characters.
The fellow who invited me to Somme, Fred Ciba, is serving the carrot cake.
I'm just above him and to the left.
To my left in the red coat is the quotable Steph Place.
Also quoted above, to her left, wearing the Indiana Jones hat, is Russ Sala.

 

Rare Plant Pops Up From Nowhere - Short Green Milkweed

A curious story.

Somme Prairie Grove has harbored one individual of this rare milkweed for decades. Normally, we would have paid more attention to such a plant. 

But we mostly forgot about it, because it seemed like a mistake. It's a plant of specialized habitats - dry prairie or sand areas. We have no dry prairie or sand at Somme. 

We did keep an eye on it, as sort of a curiosity. Year after year one or a few stems emerged - connected underground - all one plant. The other vegetation near it was initially short, old pasture plants, mostly poverty oats, Canada bluegrass, and daisy. 

It was not our goal to focus especially on rare species, especially rare species not part of this community. We were trying to restore a natural prairie ecosystem. Our major historic source, H.S.Pepoon's Flora of the Chicago Region (1920) gives this region's habitats for short green milkweed only as "sand dunes" of Indiana and "the Waukegan moorland" - today Illinois Beach - another sand habitat. We continued to mostly ignore it. 

One year Jim Steffen from the Chicago Botanic Garden came by to compare notes on our parallel experiments. When I pointed out the curious milkweed, he recommended that we plant another; that was the only way it would make seed and increase its numbers; he could give us a plant raised from seed gathered not too far away, and not from sand but from a gravelly moraine. Could it be legitimate here? We accepted the gift, planted it in a sunnier area, and it died, or at least we never saw it again. 

Over the years, with fire and the restoration of seed, the vegetation around the original plant grew thicker and more competitive, and the number of stems decreased. Some years a cursory search revealed none, though it may have produced only a few leaves, and we may have looked in the wrong places. Milkweeds are big travelers, at least over short distances. They move by roots, underground, sending rhizomes many feet to explore possibilities, putting up stems in various spots from year to year. 

Eriko Kojima frequently gathers rare seed in the area of this milkweed. The prairie vegetation here has been growing increasingly impressive (prairie coreopsis, white and purple prairie clovers, prairie gentian, prairie lily, Leiberg's panic grass, prairie dropseed, and others). And as nearby trees grew, the area was increasingly in semi-shade and harbored Seneca snakeroot, New Jersey tea, Maryland sanicle, and meadow parsnip (Thaspium trifoliatum) - savanna plants that thrive in dappled shade. We especially wanted seed from that group because, belatedly, we'd figured out that Somme Prairie Grove was indeed originally mostly savanna rather than prairie. All prairie plants also grow in savannas, but many of the non-prairie savanna plants are especially hard to find.   

This June while harvesting Seneca snakeroot, Eriko noticed that two stems of the short green milkweed had emerged, one about ten feet farther out into full sun. Interesting. We still mostly forgot about it.

But our slumbering interest was awakened dramatically when we noticed the plant below, a quarter-mile away in the area called Middle Slope:

Hiding behind a leadplant are two stems and three flower umbels of the short green milkweed.
Where did they come from?  

We've identified 486 species of native plants at Somme Prairie Grove. Perhaps we can be forgiven for not keeping up to date on every one. But this new find prompted us to review the latest info in Wilhelm and Rericha (Flora of the Chicago Region, 2017). The habitats they list for short green milkweed are not limited to sand but include gravelly savannas. Somme is on the Lake Border Moraine; indeed it includes some gravelly areas. Short green milkweed reasonably belongs here. Has this "new" plant been lurking, unseen until now, throughout our 43 years of stewardship? Especially if not flowering, the plant would be easy to miss. Even in glorious full bloom, its green flowers hardly pop. Or is it new? Could Jim Steffen's plant have produced flowers and seeds, and one blew to Middle Slope? Or is it even possible that some green milkweed seed from miles to the west, like at Shoe Factory Road Nature Preserve where there are quite a few green milkweeds on a dry gravel hill, blew miraculously in a collaborative wind all this way? Very unlikely. But possible. 

We'll never know how it got there ... and really don't care all that much. We're about biodiversity conservation. A potentially reproducing short green milkweed population is now on the team. 

 

Protection From Chiggers, Ticks, and Lyme Disease

I know a lot of people who spend a lot of time in nature, who have not gotten lyme disease. But I know some who have, and lyme disease in the Chicago region is said to be increasing. 

For many years I sprayed my ankles and legs with bug repellent. It has always worked to ward off the bugs I fear most, ticks and chiggers.

But more recently I've relied on pants treated by the commercial company Insect Shield. That works too, and I don't have to think about it.