Palos Restoration Project

A cooperative effort between the Forest Preserve District of Cook County and The Nature Conservancy, working southwest of Chicago, IL, to preserve and restore the native ecosystems of the Palos and Sag Valley Region through our volunteer network and to foster compatibility between wildlife and recreational uses of the land to benefit natural ecosystems for this and future generations.

A Brief History
We have been restoring the Palos Preserves for more than 10 years now. First a survey was done to determine the higher quality sites so that work could begin on them as soon as possible. Stewards were appointed and site management plans were submitted to the FPDCC. When approvd, workdays were scheduled and volounteers began brush clearing in the oak woods, removing buckthorn and Eurasian honeysuckle to increase the light on the soil, encouraging new oaks, forbs and grasses to come back. In the spring and early summer non-native herbaceous plants like garlic mustard were pulled. Seeding was done to bring back species long gone from some sites. Wetland and prairie edges also had brush removed to give these remnants a chance to survive. In late fall and early spring, as determined by the management plan, sections of sites were burned. We discovered this was our best tool for clearing brush and giving the native plants a chance to come back. So far only a small part of Palos has been managed – we look forward to working on more sites in the future.