Eastwood Riparian: Park Prep for Easter Egg Hunt + exciting naturalist news!

March 18, 2018 ENA

Eastwood Riparian just wrapped up a Sunday workday at Playground Park (Lippit/Sylvania at Sinclair), getting it ready for the Easter Egg Hunt on March 25 Sunday, 1 to 2 pm (NEW TIME). We picked up litter, cut any noxious plants we could find and marked places eggs should not be hidden. So we are good to go! After the hunt, enjoy pictures with the Easter Bunny (NEWS!), socializing with refreshments, and games for kids including skeeball, sidewalk chalk, bubbles, and hula hoops.

Today’s Eastwood Riparian crew: Scooter Smith (who was on poison ivy patrol); Mark Yokim holding the Extratigator (purchased from your dues), which rips up bad plants by the roots); Michael Parkey, our leader and native plant expert; Rudy Moreno, the lopper king; and me, Amy Martin, poison ivy pro (http://itchy.biz/). Most photos by Amy Martin.

We pushed fallen limbs back to maximize lawn area and also trimmed poison ivy. Do not look for eggs to the right of those logs.

Don’t be alarmed at this. These are invasive ligustrum being prepped for removal. Once they’re gone, treasures emerge as you’ll soon see.

We seeded a lot of native grasses in the area where the tree fell, including inland sea oats and prairie wild rye. As they sprout and grow, this will help force the poison ivy back into the trees, while providing food and shelter for rabbits and birds. We are getting good growth of cherry laurel in here. We also put out hickory mast here last fall in hopes of adult trees someday.

These are coralberry shrubs dug up at Spring Creek Forest Preserve last spring. Doing great!

Mable inspects roughleaf dogwoods, also from Spring Creek Forest Preserve. Just now starting to leaf out. Their berries are eaten by 52 species of birds.

And now for the BIG NEWS! Mark Yokim discovered that we have a small colony of trout lilies in the woods near the park. These little plants are among the first to emerge in spring and indicate a habitat that has not been disturbed. This means future removal of ligustrum in this area could uncover all kinds of great things! Photo by Mark Yokim.

Join with Eastwood Riparian for workdays (exercise + good deeds = greatness!), or donate money or supplies, by contacting Michael Parkey. For more about Eastwood Riparian, read here.