To help celebrate National NeighborWoods Month, the Lake County Forest Preserves will host a month-long series of workdays designed to bring volunteers together to save Lake County’s natural areas.
National NeighborWoods Month is promoted by the national nonprofit group Alliance for Community Trees (ACT). The Forest Preserve's workday series is among hundreds of re-greening efforts happening throughout the country during October.
“It’s great to be working on an important re-greening effort at a time when other organizations are doing so as well,” said Tom Smith, Land Management Technician for the Lake County Forest Preserves. “Part of our goal is to bring attention to the good work being done at the grassroots level all across the country to improve urban and community forests.”
Forest Preserve restoration workdays will take place at the following locations from 9 a.m. to noon, except where noted:
*Oct 3: Wadsworth Savanna in Wadsworth and Independence Grove - St. Francis Woods in Libertyville.
*Oct 10: Cuba Marsh in Barrington and Prairie Wolf near Lake Forest.
*Oct 11: at Marl Flat in Volo.
*Oct 17: Almond Marsh in Grayslake, Grainger Woods Preserve in Mettawa, Grant Woods and McDonald Woods in Lake Villa, and at the Lake Bluff site.
*Oct 18: Berkeley Prairie in Highland Park, Buffalo Creek in Buffalo Grove, Captain Daniel Wright Woods in Mettawa, and Heron Creek in Long Grove.
*Oct 24: Middlefork Savanna in Lake Forest, and Ryerson Conservation Area in Riverwoods.
*Oct 24: 12 to 2 p.m. at Captain Daniel Wright Woods in Mettawa.
“Having local organizations like Lake County Forest Preserves participate in National NeighborWoods Month helps us show the cumulative effect of a burgeoning urban and community forestry movement,” said ACT Executive Director Alice Ewen Walker.
Founded in 1993, the Alliance for Community Trees is a national coalition of 150 nonprofit organizations engaged in urban and community forestry. Its members are dedicated to grassroots community greening, public education, policymaking, job training, environmental design and other activities that support better urban forest stewardship.
NeighborWoods Month is sponsored through a generous grant from The Home Depot Foundation. “Trees are an important component of responsible design to ensure that homes are affordable, energy efficient, safe and healthy,” said Kelly Caffarelli, president of The Home Depot Foundation.
“By partnering with ACT and local NeighborWoods organizations like Lake County Forest Preserves, The Foundation is able to further its goals of investing in the overall health and success of our communities.”
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