Forest Preserve District of DuPage County

Happy Friday! We hope you have a great weekend enjoying your DuPage forest preserves! 💚

From hitting the trails to renting a boat, there are so many ways to enjoy the great outdoors! Visit our website to plan your next adventure https://www.dupageforest.org/

🚧 Heads up, folks! The Salt Creek Park parking lots will be CLOSED August 19 & 20 for sealcoating. There is no alternative parking, but all trails will remain open. As always, work is weather dependent.

What's going on at Mt. Hoy?

A landfill operated at Blackwell Forest Preserve from 1965 to 1973. When rain filters through a landfill, it creates liquid pollution called "leachate." In 1997, a leachate collection system and a landfill gas venting system were installed to minimize potential releases from the landfill that could degrade the surrounding environment. Continued groundwater monitoring shows that they have been successful.

These systems are at the end of their functional life and in need of replacement. The District is installing a new extraction system that will continue to protect people and the environment for decades to come. Additionally, upon completion of the earthmoving activities, restoration will include revegetation with native grasses and prairie plants. Construction and restoration activities are expected to be completed by December 2024.

If you've ever wanted to view the step-by-step process for creating a leachate/gas extraction well, our Planning & Development department has been kind enough to provide detailed photos. Take a look below.

8/13/24: Attention, an active algal bloom has been confirmed at Pickerel Lake within the Pratt's Wayne Woods Forest Preserve. Blooms have the potential to quickly turn harmful in warm weather, which can make pets, children and people with weak immune systems sick if they ingest or inhale water that has algae present.

How to protect yourself and your pets from harmful algal blooms:
• Don’t touch the algae.
• Keep your pets away from the water.
• If contact is made, thoroughly wash your skin (or your pet’s fur) as soon as possible.

Staff will continue to monitor water conditions and warning signs will remain on site while the bloom is occurring. Harmful algal blooms can look like spilled blue, green, or brown paint on the surface of the water.

Learn more about harmful algal blooms here

Harmful Algal Blooms Learn about harmful algal blooms, including blue-green algae, in DuPage forest preserve lakes.

The Mexican Cultural Center-DuPage in partnership with other agencies is running a scavenger hunt to get people to connect with the "Olmec Trails: Culture and Legacy" outdoor art exhibit! Solve clues and tackle challenges with a team of 4-5 people. The team with the highest score will win exciting prizes!

Download the GooseChase app and look up "Olmec Trails" to participate. The scavenger hunt runs through October, so there's still plenty of time to discover some of the 33 statues scattered throughout DuPage County.

If you want to know where exactly the 13 placed within the DuPage forest preserves are, you can download a map here https://www.dupageforest.org/what-we-do/news/news-releases/olmec-trails

More beautiful entries from our 2024 Summer Photo Contest! There's still time to enter until Sept. 2nd! Juried winners will get to choose which prize package they want.

📲 Upload your photos and read the contest rule here https://woobox.com/4ra3jq

👀 View the photo gallery, read the fun descriptions on each photo, and vote for your favorites here https://woobox.com/4ra3jq/gallery?web=1

Data collection helps inform how a project is designed. Before the rocks get dropped to create a riffle in Salt Creek at Fullersburg Woods Nature Education Center, we need to know more about the area they’re getting placed in. How deep is the water, what is the slope of the streambed, how fast is the flow?

Animals need different conditions to survive in. For example, some macro invertebrates are adapted to live in fast flowing riffles, meanwhile fish use deep pools to rest. Soil erosion and stability are other factors to take into account when adding rocks to a stream.

📸: Our partner in this project, the DuPage River Salt Creek Workgroup, seen getting in the water and collecting data.

🚧 Heads up, folks! The Herrick Lake north parking lot will be CLOSED August 12 & 13 for sealcoating. Alternative parking can be found at the south lot off of Herrick Rd. As always, work is weather dependent.

Construction is moving along at Salt Creek to restore an area once impeded by a dam. 🌊 Crews are now adding boulders near Fullersburg Woods Nature Education Center and Graue Mill and Museum to create riffles in the stream. 🪨 This will add dissolved oxygen to the water which fish, mussels, and other macro invertebrates rely on to breathe. 🐟 These organisms in return help create cleaner waterways.

Take a look and click through the photos for more interesting information. 🚧

Cicadas in the summertime, a truly iconic sound. If you listen, you can still hear them singing in the trees late into the season. So what makes the annual cicadas that are out now different from the periodical cicadas that we experienced earlier this summer? Here's a breakdown.

🪰 Annual Cicadas:
• Have 2-5 year life cycles that are NOT synchronized (thus why we see some emerge every year)
• Present July-September
• Black eyes, green/brown/black patterned bodies, larger in size

🪰 Periodical Cicadas:
• Emerge every 17-years in mass in northern Illinois (there are also 13-year cicadas in southern Illinois)
• Present May-June
• Red eyes, black bodies, orange wings, smaller in size

Take a look at some stunning up-close photos that were captured in the DuPage forest preserves this summer that highlight the visual differences between the two!

Yesterday, Natural Resources staff released 282 freshwater mussels into the East Branch of the DuPage River at Greene Valley. All of the mussels were raised at Blackwell's Urban Stream Research Center.

Three different species were released, including 86 Plain Pocketbook (Lampsilis cardium), 68 Fatmucket (Lampsilis siliquoidea), and 128 Creeper (Strophitus undulatus). All individuals were tagged with different colors of glitter to indicate what species and what year they were from.

News Releases-Willowbrook Name Change Nationally renowned wildlife treatment and education center — formerly known as Willowbrook Wildlife Center — will reopen as the DuPage Wildlife Conservation Center

"We can just let July be July, let the sun hang in the sky, clear your mind of all the things you're waiting on." - Lily Williams (📍 Pratt's Wayne Woods)

7/25/24: Attention, an active algal bloom has been confirmed at Silver Lake within the Blackwell Forest Preserve. Blooms have the potential to quickly turn harmful in warm weather, which can make pets, children and people with weak immune systems sick if they ingest or inhale water that has algae present.

How to protect yourself and your pets from harmful algal blooms:
• Don’t touch the algae.
• Keep your pets away from the water.
• If contact is made, thoroughly wash your skin (or your pet’s fur) as soon as possible.

Staff will continue to monitor water conditions. Harmful algal blooms can look like spilled blue, green, or brown paint on the surface of the water. Should you observe a potential algal bloom in a DuPage forest preserve, please report the specific location and provide a photo to [email protected].

Learn more about harmful algal blooms here https://www.dupageforest.org/https/www.dupageforest.org/what-we-do/news/important-updates/harmful-aglal-blooms

Did you know the District raises endangered species? Recently, Hine's emerald dragonflies were released into one of our forest preserves. After spending two years at the Urban Stream Research Center, it was time for larvae to molt into adults and enter the wild. Historically, the Hine's emerald dragonfly was found in seven states, but today can only be seen in four. By maintaining high quality natural areas, we're able to give a variety of species habitats to call home in DuPage.

Curious how long it takes for native plants to regrow after a prescribed burn is conducted? After about 4.5 months, this prairie is a lush area providing food and habitat for wildlife. Fire is an important tool used in the fall and spring to remove invasive species, put nutrients back into the soil, and help seeds to germinate. -Danada Forest Preserve

🦋 Where does the question mark butterfly get its name from? If you look closely, you'll notice a small white mark that resembles a question mark on the underside of its hind wing. An elongated black dot on the upper orange side of its wing can also help differentiate it from other similar looking butterflies, such as the eastern comma butterfly.

From far away, the butterfly's outer wing coloring allows it to blend very well into the dead leaves. You can see the white "question mark" indicator in the closeup photo.

📸: Kathy L**h, Natural Resources Stewardship Technician

District crews have been busy cleaning up damage from this week’s storms! ⛈️⚡️Thank you to the Forestry and Ranger Operations teams for quickly tackling hazardous and fallen tree limbs in the forest preserves! 🌳

Concerns in the preserves can be reported using this form https://gis.dupageco.org/CitizenReporter/

🎯 Heads up, folks! The Blackwell archery range will be closed until 3 p.m. on Monday through Friday, from July 22 to Aug. 2 to allow crews to safely conduct maintenance work on nearby Mt. Hoy during the day. Weekend hours will remain as usual. Thank you for your patience!

🌼🪲🐝 Many flowers are in full bloom right now! If you’re looking for some garden inspiration, take a look at our parking lot at District headquarters, located within the Danada Forest Preserve. Rain gardens planted in between the parking spaces feature a variety of native plants.

District headquarters also has a very short asphalt trail that goes behind the building, which then leads into a longer crushed limestone trail. Flush bathrooms are open to the public on weekdays during business hours.

🥾 Get out and explore your DuPage forest preserves while they’re at a beautiful peak!