Case Study :
Strategies and Successes at MacArthur Woods
Ken Klick, Ecologist at Lake County Forest Preserve District
I'd like to share with you a project that the Forest Preserve District has been very actively involved in for the last four years. It is, in my opinion, one of the most ambitious, thorough efforts made not only to restore a high quality site, but also to monitor the changes and the effect of the site management occurring there.
The goals of this project at MacArthur Woods were to control invasive species (almost exclusively common buckthorn, Rhamnus cathartica), restore groundwater hydrology, increase the fire frequency, and monitor the ecological changes brought about by both invasive species control and hydrologic restoration.
MacArthur Woods, a 504-acre, state-dedicated nature preserve in central Lake County in the Libertyville/Vernon Hills area, is especially significant in that it has a very large, unfragmented block of forest.
In pre-settlement times everything to the west of the Des Plaines River was prairie, and everything to the east of the river was either woodland or savannah, so a very sharp demarcation exists in the natural plant community.
MacArthur Woods represents the County's largest unfragmented block of forest, and because of its size, has a lot of forest interior species including about 200 acres of MacArthur Woods are dominated by an upland oak forest of typical white oak and shagbark hickory. State-listed species like the brown creeper have been known to nest in the area, and broad wing hawks have also been seen there. There are many plant species as well, including a globally-endangered plant community in the northern flatwoods.
The northern flatwoods community is a swampland, with an impermeable clay layer that allows for very slow percolation of water, so generally in the springtime it's saturated. Swamp white oaks and black ash are the dominant species. This is a habitat that's very important for amphibian populations; these vernal pools are great breeding ponds, so we have things like spotted salamanders and blue spotted salamanders. The purple fringed orchid, a characteristic species of that community which is very, rare is also sustained by this unique hydrology.
To read more, click the link below to view the entire article in a pdf document.
Ken Klick
Biography
Ken Klick is the restoration ecologist with Lake County (Illinois) Forest Preserves. He is a botanist specializing in the ecology and taxonomy of our region's flora. His projects at the forest preserve include large scale habitat restorations involving hydrologic restoration, large-scale planting, ecological monitoring, and follow-up management planning. He serves as the District's burn boss, burning about 1500 acres per year. Ken's educational background is a B.S. in Botany and is an avid birder.