Main Ring Prairie Burn

FNA member Gordon Koizumi captured this photo of the prescribed burn in Fermilab's Main Ring prairie yesterday.

Join us for the fall Prairie Harvests

Fermilab's annual volunteer prairie harvests will be held on Saturday, October 6 and Saturday, November 3, from 10 am until 2 pm.  Volunteers should follow on-site signage to the Main Ring or Interpretive Prairie.  More information is available on the Fermilab website. 

Reserve your spot for FNA Discovery Day!

On July 14th, FNA will be leading four special guided tours of Fermilab's natural areas at our first Discovery Day event. Visitors will have an opportunity to visit sites that are normally not accessible to the public! Festivities will begin at the Kuhn Barn in the Fermilab Village where visitors can chat with FNA ecological regional partners such as The Conservation Foundation before beginning a bus & walking tour of some of our off-the-beaten-track natural areas. Tours will require walking outside on uneven terrain so please wear closed-toed shoes. We also recommend long pants, sunscreen and your favorite insect repellant! At each stop, two expert volunteer guides will be provide information on current restoration efforts as well as site history, flora and fauna. This will be the perfect opportunity to ask everything you always wanted to know about our natural spaces, and learn about becoming a site volunteer.

The tours will visit four of Fermilab’s premier ecological locations: award winning Nepese Marsh where our site steward will cover its history and point out some current residents; no tour of our natural areas would be complete without a stop at our Main Ring Savanna; the tour at Indian Creek Woods will give you an opportunity to explore our wetland mitigation site and see how (with a little help!) nature is thriving where there was once a major construction project; the final stop will delight any plant or butterfly lovers as we introduce you to the diversity of Big Woods North. Lunch and other merchandise will be available for purchase at the Kuhn Barn. Email us at fermilabnaturalareas+discoveryday@gmail.com to reserve your spot at Discovery Day – just let us know how many attendees will be attending with you!

January / February FNA Newsletter available

The latest news from Fermilab Natural Areas highlights the receipt of a grant from the DuPage Community Foundation, a tool donation from Corona Tools, and an Eagle Scout project to repair footbridges in the Big Woods.


Thanks to all of you for your support in 2011 and we look forward to many good things in 2012! As always, a high-resolution of the newsletter is available online.

Coming Soon: Prairie Harvests

The annual volunteer prairie harvests are scheduled for Saturday, October 1 and Saturday, October 29, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.  Both harvests will take place in Fermilab's Main Ring prairie, with a hot dog lunch for all participants!

Photo of the Day: Cardinal Flower

Thanks to Gordon Koizumi, Fermilab employee & FNA supporter for this photo of cardinal flower:

Photo of the Day: Red Milkweed Beetle

From the prairie, Gordon Koizumi's photo of a red milkweed beetle:

Photo of the Day: Shooting Star

Thanks to Gordon Koizumi for the photo of shooting star, from the Fermilab prairie:

Season's End: A Sunny & Blue-Sky Harvest

Thanks to everyone who came out last Saturday for the final volunteer prairie harvest of the 2010 season.   As part of our lunch festivities, Pier Oddone, Fermilab Director, presented recognition awards to long-time volunteers Ruthanne Baird and Keith Olson.

FNA news in Fermilab Today

Fermilab Today published an article about FNA and the prairie restoration effort at Fermilab. 

Prairie Harvest, October 30

The last prairie harvest of the season will be held on Saturday, October 30, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.  More information is available online.  We're planning to collect the following species:  Rattlesnake Master, Foxglove Beard Tongue, Tall Coreopsis, New England Aster, Heath Aster, Round-Headed Bush Clover, Culver's Root, Cord Grass, Sneezeweed, Early Goldenrod, Stiff Gentian, Cream Gentian.

Saturday's forecast currently calls for partly sunny and breezy, with a high around 57.  Come out and join us!

A Blustery Harvest

Strong winds tested, but did not deter, the volunteers who came out for the first prairie harvest of the 2010 season.  On Saturday, October 2, school groups, Cub scouts and other steadfast volunteers collected species such as cord grass, cream gentians, culver's root, grey goldenrod, nodding wild onion, obediant plant, prairie sunflower, rattlesnake master, round-headed bush clover, sneezeweed, spotted joe-pye weed, swamp betony, sweet black-eyed susan, and wild quinine.  Thanks to everyone for coming out!

September/October Newsletter Published

The FNA September/October newsletter is published and available online.  If you are interested being added to our mailing list, please send email to FNA.





Main Ring Prairie

Fermilab employee Joseph Pygott made a trip into the Main Ring recently and shared some of his photos with FNA:

Visiting the Great Western Prairie

from Ryan Campbell:  

The Fermilab ecological restoration seasonal workers and summer employees recently visited another prairie remnant within the Chicagoland area. We met with the site steward, Keith Olson (who also happens to be a Fermilab Prairie Harvest volunteer since the late 1970's) of the Elmhurst Great Western Prairie. Keith explained the formation, preservation, history, and community involvement of the small, 8 block strip of remnant next to an abandoned railroad line. We saw many excellent native prairie plants like Sullivant's milkweed, compass plant, blue-eyed grass, flowering spurge, lead plant, and prairie blazing star. The city of Elmhurst is supportive of this attractive, downtown prairie which makes quite the artistic accent to the Illinois Prairie Path. It was a great chance to visit a dedicated Fermi volunteer and see another example of what prairie is and how it is managed.

Calling on a Neighbor

from Mike Beck & the summer crew:  

On July 9 2010, the new weed control workers consisting of Kevin Sheehan and Mike Beck along with the prairie crew, Julie Allen & Jessica Meyers, took an off-site excursion to Schulenberg Prairie within the Morton Arboretum.

Upon arrival we were in awe at the unique and vast prairie that is so different then Fermilab’s. As we transversed the Schulenberg Prairie, we particularly noticed the diversity of the prairie. Plants that are rare to Fermilab’s prairie are common in the Schulenberg Prairie, including Cream Wild Indigo (Baptisia leucophaea) and Prairie Dropseed (Sorobolus heterolepis). Also, it was interesting to see how different species dominate different prairies.  For example, Fermilab has large amounts of Compass Plant and Prairie Dock, whereas the Schulenberg Prairie is dominated by Prairie Clover.

Overall, the trip to the Schulenberg Prairie at the Morton Arboretum was very beneficial to understanding and appreciation of the diversity of prairies found throughout Illinois, all the while showing us the impact that a restoration can have to the landscape.

Summer Blooms

At noon tomorrow, July 21, Ryan Campbell will lead a walk into the summer prairie. Meet at the Margaret Pearson Interpretive Trail parking lot.  There will be ample opportunities for discussion on prairies and plants and everything else as we make the short hike. Join us!

Photo credit:  Fermilab Visual Media Services,

Monarda Fistulosa, Wild Bergamot

Field Trip: Indian Boundary Prairies

from our summer restoration folk:

On Friday, June 25th, five of us, Ryan Campbell, Julie Allen, Jessica Meyers, Kevin Sheehan and Mike Beck, went to visit remnant prairies in Markham, Illinois.  Referred to as the Indian Boundary Prairies or Gensberg-Markham, the lands are owned and managed by the Nature Conservancy, Northeastern Illinois University and the Natural Land Institute. Two of the stewards shared some history as well as their current management efforts. This was an excellent opportunity for us to see what a restored remnant prairie looks like, and to compare and contrast it to our prairies at Fermilab.

With their permission, we collected Wild Onion, Prairie Panic Grass, and some different carex species. We were all surprised by the extremely high level of plant diversity, which caused average plant height to be much shorter than we see at Fermilab. The most exciting point of the day was when we came across a federally endangered White Fringed Orchid (pictured above), just finishing its bloom. The manager and naturalist of the site Ron Panzer was not surprised: “We got tons of them,” he said.  In addition, the site is known for its insect diversity, such as the Aphrodite butterfly. The prairie is open to the public and well worth the visit.  More information is available online.

photo courtesy:  Julie Allen

Tonight: Summer Sunset

At sunset tonight turn your gaze west, over the prairie at Fermilab. Ryan Campbell will be hosting a walking tour of our grassland restorations for those wanting an experience once familiar to this land and now recreated. Expect to see such beautiful prairie forbs as Culver's Root, Pale Purple Coneflower, Wild Bergamot, and Rattlesnake Master. Listen to the sounds of the of birds and insects, talk with others about prairie, and smell the cool breeze on this magnificent and rare tallgrass prairie landscape.

photo courtesy:  www.illinoiswildflowers.info

July/August Newsletter Published

The latest edition of the Fermilab Natural Areas newsletter is online! With the next two months packed full of events and activities to get involved with -- butterfly walks, sunset on the prairie walks, habitat restoration volunteer days and more, now is the time to get outside!  Venture into the prairie, hike the trails and see what is blooming.

Please note:  for those of you who receive the newsletter via email, the butterfly walk on at noon August 26 was omitted.  The August 12 walk begins at 4:30 p.m.

If you'd like to be added to the FNA email list, please contact us at fermilabnaturalareas@gmail.com.

photo courtesy:  Fermilab Roads & Grounds