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15% LIGHT AVAILABILITY
36% LIGHT AVAILABILITY
WOODLAND HABITAT RESTORATION PROJECT
ENSURING SUSTAINABILITY
u HABITAT MONITORING Plant and wildlife monitoring has shown that the past 20 years of management has improved the habitat. These monitoring programs will continue after restoration actions have been implemented. Monitoring will help us understand the response of plants and animals to restoration actions.
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MEASURING LIGHT LEVELS
These photos illustrate the change in light transmission in the same location before and after moderate thinning treatment at MacArthur Woods. Fisheye lens photos of the canopy are analyzed by a special computer program that measures canopy cover and light availability. Prior to the first phase of restoration, average light transmission to ground level within wooded communities in project areas was 15.6%. Oaks and other open canopy species require 30-50% full sun for growth beyond the seedling stage into saplings.
4 HORI ZON S QUARTERLY
FALL 2 01 3
The goals of this project are broad reaching and long-term. Expert partners will continue to help monitor plants, animals and environmental conditions in project areas. Our partners include the Morton Arboretum, Chicago Botanic Garden, Lincoln Park Zoo, Natural Resource Conservation Service, Illinois Natural History Survey and Chicago Wilderness. Working with the Morton Arboretum, restoration sites were monitored throughout the summer. Permanent photo points have been established, and images will be taken in each cardinal direction. Tree mapping will occur in permanent, defined plots. This mapping requires measuring tree density, size and noting all species. Features such as standing dead trees, woody debris, shrubs, herbaceous layer, and the height and vigor of oak seedlings are also recorded. Standing dead trees and fallen logs are noted because they are important indicators of available wildlife habitat. Red-headed woodpeckers, a species of conservation concern, nests and feeds on standing dead trees. Fallen logs provide abundant habitat for insects, fungi and salamanders, which in-turn act as a food source for other larger wildlife species.
The Illinois Natural History Survey completed breeding bird monitoring in each project area this summer, while students and staff at Lake Forest College conducted invertebrate surveys at MacArthur Woods and Ryerson Conservation Area. These efforts will serve as a baseline for future assessments in the decades following restoration. Wildlife monitoring will continue in collaboration with partners and through the District’s established Wildlife Monitoring Program. This fall, volunteers will reintroduce native plants, seeding and planting shrubs such as hazelnut, viburnum and winterberry. In the winter, thinning will shift to Ryerson Woods and Captain Daniel Wright Woods, and efforts will continue at MacArthur Woods. We will oversee contractors who will implement thinning in these ecologically important woodland communities. RESTORING DIVERSITY AND BEAUTY
The Woodland Habitat Restoration Project is a large-scale effort to restore the health of our oak woodlands, which were once more prevalent in northern Illinois. Today, healthy oak woodlands are rare. Since 1830, 88% of the oak-dominated communities in Lake County have been lost. Much of the remaining acreage is under acute pressure from a combination of threats,