October 13, 2004

BY GARY WISBY Environment Reporter

More than 75 percent of woodlands in the Chicago area rate only fair or poor, according to a survey done by volunteers for Chicago Wilderness.

"They're pretty much in lousy shape," said Karen Glennemeier, who will present the findings here Thursday.

Science coordinator for Audubon-Chicago Region, she is among 200 national experts attending the four-day Natural Areas Conference starting today at the Holiday Inn Chicago Mart Plaza.

From 2002 through this summer, 140 volunteers visited 252 randomly selected plots in woodlands, all in forest preserves, to give them the naturalist's version of a physical checkup.

One of the volunteers was Kent Fuller of Glenview, a retired senior adviser for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Like other volunteers, he divided each 500-square-meter plot into nine subplots.

Then he counted and measured trees, shrubs, wildflowers and grasses -- everything in the subplot. Each was assigned a value, from zero for a dandelion to six for a black oak to 10 for a rare white lady's slipper.

"I didn't find any [plots] of great quality," said Fuller, who visited four sites in Cook and Lake counties. "Most were overgrown and shady. There was not much diversity, and some of the plots were bare ground."

His findings reflected the overall survey, which rated 36 percent of the plots poor, 40 percent fair, 20 percent good and 4 percent excellent. He's lucky to live near Harms Woods, which got a good score.

One big reason for the lackluster regional showing was the invasive shrub buckthorn. More than 26 million buckthorn plants taller than a meter -- about a yard -- were found, or 558 per acre.

"Buckthorn creates dense shade, with thickets you can't even walk through," Glennemeier said. "It turns forests with lots of wildflowers into dense Hansel and Gretel forests."

Estimates of restoring the woodlands range up to $84 million. That would buy chain saws and loppers, herbicide, native plant seed and staff time for organizing controlled burns and buckthorn clearing.