Urban Oak Ecosystem Mapping (Triton College and the Cook County Forest Preserves)

According to The Chicago Wilderness’ website the organization “ is a broad alliance of member organizations whose knowledge and expertise spans all facets of conservation. From invasive species removal and land regeneration to childhood education and volunteer action, our efforts significantly contribute to regional resiliency and economic vitality.” I recently attended a lecture hosted by the Chicago Wilderness and their resident Ecologist stated that about 70% of our regions’ remnant Oak ecosystems lie on private land. This provides a unique challenge in the efforts to save these remaining ecosystems and to provide the specialized land management techniques that these areas require. Chicago Wilderness (CW) is working now to map out Oak ecosystems using a combination of historical maps and current GIS data. My project will augment this work by adding a citizen science component to the mapping process. The resulting data will be contributed to the Chicago Wilderness’ Regional Recovery Plan for Oak Ecosystems. If the school program and resulting data is successful it can be made available to other Chicago Wilderness partners. This will bring this work to additional regions and exponentially increasing the data set.

Let ID Some Trees!
Adam Kessel
Naturalist
Trailside Museum
River Forest, IL. less ↑