Edward L Ryerson Woods

I know. I shouldn’t have a favorite. Out of 400 dedicated Illinois Nature Preserves, how can I choose one above the others? It would be like choosing which child I loved best. But today, I’m choosing. Today it’s Edward L Ryerson, #15 toward the goal of visiting 50 Illinois Nature Preserves in 2017.

What initially lured Susan and me to make the trip up to Ryerson Woods was the art. The Brushwood Center was hosting an exhibition of photographs by Carol Freeman. Entitled Endangered Beauty, the exhibition featured a sampling of Carol’s quest to photograph all 483 endangered species in Illinois.

Yep. You read that right. 483. There are a lot of plants and animals on that list. Small wonder since 75% of the Prairie State is a corn or soybean field. Carol’s photographs remind us, however, how richly diverse and exquisitely beautiful our native flora and fauna are.

I imagine that what fuels Carol to capture all these many species on film is much the same as drove George Fell to establish the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission. George, too, was motivated by beauty and biodiversity to protect every last scrap of prairie, wetland, woodland, bog, fen and every other kind of natural area remaining in the state before they were plowed up or paved over.

Today, Illinois Nature Preserves harbor a third of all threatened and endangered plant species, and nearly half of all mammal species. Fifty different kinds of plants and animals exist nowhere else in Illinois except in dedicated nature preserves. In fact, some entire habitat types — such as globally rare algific talus slope — remain only as dedicated nature preserves.

Inspired by Carol’s photographs, Susan and I venture into the woods.

White trout lily (Erythronium albidum)

Wow.

Woodland wildflowers. Everywhere. And I mean everywhere.

Prairie trillium (Trillium recurvatum)

Unfortunately, many of our region’s woodlands are orverrun with invasive tree and shrubs. Here and there, you might find a small patch of spring beauties or a pocket of Virginia bluebells.

Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica)

But Edward L Ryerson well deserves its Illinois Nature Preserves dedication by virtue of being a prime example of a wet floodplain forest along the DesPlaines River, as well as for how exceptionally well-stewarded it is. Fire scars on tree stumps are evidence of controlled burns, which help keep the forest clear of invasives, allowing woodland wildflowers — aptly known as spring ephemerals for their fleeting appearance — to thrive.

Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum)

To stroll for hours through such beauty. What a gift. Thanks George Fell, for establishing the Illinois Nature Preserves System. Thanks Edward L. Ryerson for  buying the land from “the grandson-in-law of the first permanent settler in Lake County…and I would like it to remain the way it was when the Indians lived there before he came in 1834,” and for sparking the establishment of the Lake County Forest Preserve District, which now owns and manages the site. And to all those who have had a hand in the protection and stewardship of this historic, cultural and biological gem.

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