An intern from new Trier HS, Claire Labuda, has been hard at work at Camp Pine. This is a prairie full of shrubby clumps. So many anonymous clumps! It’s hard to describe where a certain bird might be nesting or where native shrubs are growing without names. Claire developed a much-needed system of mapping, labeling and describing the clumps.

She mapped two sections. West of the Des Plaines River Trail is The Meadow, which is the former Girl Scout, CCC and POW camp area. East of the trail is The Remnant, which is mostly overgrown brush with prairie openings. Each clump and opening is marked with yarn on the northern edge. Prairie openings that require going off the main perimeter trail onto smaller deer trails also have yarn marked where the perimeter trail joins with the deer trail.

Then she watched which birds were using which areas and recorded them here. She also included management notes from Steward Ken Schaefer.

Anyone interested in planning the next steps in this work is invited to meet at 7:30 in the parking lot on Saturdays July 2 and August 6. We will look at some of the more promising spots and prepare them for fall restoration work - for example, cutting out non-native shrubs and deciding which areas are ok for brush-cutting. In July, we will also be looking for nesting birds. We will finish by 9 or 9:30 to avoid the heat. Please let us know whether you are interested at cas@chicagoaudubon.org.

Thanks to Claire this will be easy!