Winter/Spring Events for Friends of the Sangamon Valley

The Friends of the Sangamon Valley has a bunch of events planned for the first part of 2019. Here’s the info, be sure to follow us on Facebook for updates, and be sure to join so you’re always notified via our newsletter . . .

Annual Meeting – walk of Nipper Wildlife Sanctuary – 11am Saturday February 9 – includes a short walk (weather permitting) with tour of wetlands, followed by chili. Presentation of annual report by Vernon LaGesse on our group’s activities and a slideshow featuring highlights of our 20 years in conservation. Great event to attend if you’re interested in joining, becoming a volunteer or serving in a leadership position. At Nipper Wildlife Sanctuary (from Springfield or Chatham, take E. Loami Rd. west to Lead Line Rd. Turn south (left) on Lead Line to Withers Rd. Turn west (right) on Withers. Go about a 1/2 mile until you see the entrance sign for the Sanctuary; parking lot on site. 9560 Withers Rd., Loami.)

Chainsaw Workshop – Saturday February 23 – Get ready to volunteer in 2019 volunteer by sharpening your skills at free training workshops.

ADVANCED class from 10am-noon, for those who already took a beginner course. You will learn techniques for dropping larger trees. You must register in advance, limited space available. Call Vern 525.1410. LUNCH will be made available for those who stay to help with the . . .

BEGINNER class from 1-3pm, if you have a chainsaw and want to know how to use it safely. We will cover chainsaw operation, safety, maintenance, battery-powered saws, and how to cut small trees and shrubs. You must register in advance by calling Vern 525.1410.

Hopefully you’ll be volunteering on our work days. But if this is just to hone your skills to work your own, personal restoration project – you’re more than welcome to come! At Adams Wildlife Sanctuary, 2315 E Clear Lake Ave, Springfield, Illinois 62703 (an Illinois Audubon Society nature preserve).

Burn Crew Training – 1-5pm Saturday March 2 – Controlled burns are an important part of our stewardship work. If you’re interested in being on the burn crew, you may have some long exhausting days, but you’ll have a lot of fun, experience great teamwork, and get close to one of nature’s great phenomena. Plus you’ll really be helping us out. Come out to the training to see if burn crew is for you.

Call Vern at 525.1410 to register or for more information. Classroom and field session, so dress appropriately (long pants, long sleeves, sturdy boots, natural fibers). Hopefully you’ll be volunteering on our work days. But if this is just to hone your skills to work your own, personal restoration project – you’re more than welcome to come!

Mushroom Workshop – 1-3pm Saturday March 16 – We’ll show you how to grow your own oyster and shiitake mushrooms, and give you what you need to get started.

All previous sessions of this workshop have sold out. We’ve moved to a larger facility to accommodate more people, but you’ll need to act fast to reserve your spot. The workshop fee is $20 for members and $25 for non-members (membership information link). You will receive two logs and inoculated plugs for both types of mushrooms. You will learn how to harvest mushrooms from the logs, where to get spore, and how to start your own logs (one oyster, one shiitake). The oysters should fruit in fall/winter 2019 and the shiitakes in fall 2020.

Call Vern at 525.1410 to register. Pay in advance to reserve a spot. The workshop starts at 1pm, if you are not present by 1:10pm, we will give your spot to the first person on the waiting list with your payment used as a donation to our conservation work. Send payment to Friends of the Sangamon Valley, PO Box 13352, Springfield, IL 62791 or through Paypal.

To get to Nipper: From Springfield or Chatham, take E. Loami Rd. west to Lead Line Rd. Turn south (left) on Lead Line to Withers Rd. Turn west (right) on Withers. Go about a 1/2 mile until you see the entrance sign for the Sanctuary; parking lot on site. 9560 Withers Rd., Loami. Click here to get to the membership information page.

Tour of Gudmundson Property & Sangamon River Float – 11am-2pm Saturday April 13 –  This is a MEMBERS ONLY event (membership information link). Join us for a walking tour of the Sangamon River bluffs/floodplain of our new acquisition north of the Springfield airport. Meet at Howard Johnson’s parking lot, Rt. 29, just south of the airport and we’ll caravan to the property. Tour will be followed by an optional float to Rolling Meadows Brewery. Canoes can put in on the Gudmundson property, about five miles upstream of the Brewery. Those who stay behind can join us for a hot dog cook out, with a caravan to Rolling Meadows afterwards. Canoe availability is limited. Call Vern at 525.1410 to reserve a place on the float.

Thanks to all our members who make possible all our workdays, events, tours and other efforts to preserve and rehabilitate natural areas in the Springfield, Illinois region. See a list of our Places & Projects. Please join! Please volunteer! Thanks!

 

Mary Lou Lael Receives Surprise Rotary Award for her Wetland Restoration

As our regular readers know, Mary Lou Lael has been working with Vern LaGesse and occasionally with the Friends of the Sangamon Valley to restore her former farm fields into prairies and wetlands. Mary Lou is a retired grade school teacher, but that doesn’t keep her from hosting classes of kids at her property for seed collecting, frog catching, and good clean fun in the mud. Not to mention her amazing cookies.

Mary Lou’s dedication to conservation and restoration was recently honored with an award from the Jacksonville Rotary Club. Only she didn’t know it was for her. Her friends wanted to surprise her, so they told her the award was for Vern because of all the assistance he’d given her. She bought it, and showed up to the ceremony ready to laud Vern for this and that and tell stories about him.

Good hearted people are so easy to turn the tables on. The award was for her, and surprised she was. Once over the shock, she enjoyed the day and basked in the accolades.

 

Mary Lou Lael at the Jacksonville Rotary Club after being surprised by receiving a Paul Harris Fellowship.

Mary Lou is a classy lady, and shortly after the event, Vern received this beautiful note from her:

Dear Vern, It was such a delight to see a table of some of my favorite people last
Friday at Rotary—all there to honor you. The Paul Harris award does belong to you as much as to me. You had the vision to see something beyond the scope of my experience, something that has brought, and daily continues to bring me such joy. As Willa Cather said, “Anybody can love the mountains, but it takes a soul to love the prairie.” Thank you for being part of the surprise, for your kind words, and especially for bringing a dream (I didn’t even know I had) to life. My sincere thanks and appreciation, ML.

I’m not crying, you’re crying. Congratulations, Mary Lou!!

Written by Executive Director Vern LaGesse. Support this and other Friends of the Sangamon Valley project by donating or becoming a member. Membership page or PayPal Link. 

 

FoSV 2018 Fundraiser Thanks!

Our October 5, 2018 tour of Nipper Wildlife Preserve featuring a Ben Bedford concert at Sheedy Shores Winery was a great success. And we owe it to one of the Friend’s newest board members, Steve Warmowski, who just about single-handedly orchestrated the whole event. Everything went so well, we may as well give him credit for the weather too, which was fantastic.

Executive Director Vern LaGesse had a huge tour at next door Nipper Wildlife Preserve in the early evening, with spectacular skies (see photos of the event on our Facebook page). Ben’s concert was well-attended and gave him an opportunity to showcase recently released material before heading out on a European tour. Cindy & Dick Nagle surprised Vern by gifting him with an auction item, a picture of Vern and his recently departed lil’ Buddy. Not a dry eye in the house.

We’re grateful to the folks at Sheedy Shores who provided such a great venue, the Honeycomb Grill food truck by the Soap Co. Coffee House in Jacksonville, who we bought out of everything they had, Chris Young for his amazing photos, and to all our attendees who stayed, drank, and had a great time.

Thanks to Steve and Warmowski Photography for all your efforts. Let’s do it again!

Ben Bedford in concert. Photo by Steve of Warmowski Photography

Sheedy Shores Winery at sunset. Photo by Steve of Warmowski Photography

Honeycomb Grill by The Soap Co. Coffee House. Photo by Steve of Warmowski Photography

And thanks to all our members who attended our membership appreciation event. We have a members only Tour of Gudmundson Property & Sangamon River Float 11am April 13, 2019  Join us for a walking tour of the Sangamon River bluffs and floodplain of our new acquisition north of the Springfield airport. Meet at Howard Johnson’s parking lot, Rt. 29, just south of the airport and we’ll caravan to the property. Tour will be followed by an optional float to Rolling Meadows Brewery. Canoes can put in on the Gudmundson property, about five miles upstream of the brewery. Those who stay behind can join us for a hot dog cook out, with a caravan to Rolling Meadows afterwards.
Canoe availability is limited. Contact Vern to reserve a place on the float.

Nipper Wetland Study Update

The Friends’ surface water quality study at Nipper Wildlife Sanctuary is ongoing. The Friends are collecting surface water chemistry data and information on water levels and flow into and out of the wetlands to quantify the nutrient load moving through the wetlands and what this might mean for replicating wetland restoration on other properties.

Besides providing great habitat, wetlands are thought to be beneficial for trapping and controlling nutrients and agricultural-related compounds such as ammonia, nitrogen, and phosphorus. Wetland sediments and wetland vegetation can trap these nutrients and keep them from entering streams, rivers, and lakes at excessive or harmful concentrations.

The five wetlands at Nipper Wildlife Sanctuary treat runoff and discharge from adjacent agricultural field drainage tiles and from a 70-acre drainage area. In 2016, the City of Springfield and the Sangamon County Soil and Water Conservation District studied nitrate in surface water throughout the watershed. The Nipper wetlands were included in the study, with surface water samples taken in the first wetland (i.e., southern- most, the pond at the nature center) and at the downstream outlet of the fifth wetland (i.e., northernmost, near Lick Creek). The results indicated a significant reduction of nitrates, apparently due to biofiltration and plant uptake.

To build on this, the Friends of the Sangamon Valley initiated a two-year study of the wetlands’ water quality. Funded by the Nipper Foundation and the Brandt Foundation, the Friends contracted with Northwater Consulting to develop the study, conduct the ongoing monitoring and provide a report interpreting the results. We’ve also been able to purchase lab equipment and supplies. Having our own resources to conduct such studies will help build our capacity to conduct similar studies with other streams and wetlands in our watershed.

 

Tour of Nipper Wildlife Sanctuary, Loami at Friends of the Sangamon Valley’s Prairie Days, 2017. Photo for FoSV by Steve Warmowski.

 

The Friends has gathered about six months of data so far. The first three months experienced some glitches with data analysis. As the winter and spring progresses, and we’ve become more consistent with data collection and analysis, we’ll have more information that we can start evaluating.

With continued guidance from Northwater, Charlene Falco (FoSV board member and board secretary) is operating the lab and overseeing the sampling scheduling. We are trying to set up two teams: one for sampling and one for the lab. If you are interested in helping out with sampling or lab work, contact Charlene at 217 525.1410. We have trained three volunteers to assist with field sampling and one other volunteer for lab work. We have a few prospects for additional lab workers, but are interested in finding more.

For water sampling, be prepared to get wet. We wade into the wetlands to get samples, or we might use a canoe. Either way, you’ll get at least a little bit wet. It’s helpful to have waders when the water is colder, but if you don’t have waders or don’t want to get in the water, you can be a data recorder. We usually sample the second or third week of the month, and usually on Saturdays or Sundays. Sampling takes about a couple of hours.

For lab work, previous experience would be great, but it’s not required. Patience, fine motor control, and an ability to follow instructions is a must. Be prepared to work at least four hours at a time, usually on a Saturday or Sunday. We do some of the analyses as soon as possible after sample collection, so lab work usually occurs the third and fourth week of the month. Some analyses are conducted later, within 28 days of sample collection.

It’s an interesting project and we’re learning as we go along. We’re always interested in finding new ways to look at our natural areas and to learn more about them and more about how they interact and contribute to the world around them.

You can help us carry on conservation work like this by becoming a member or by donating. How to on our membership tab.