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Chicago
Fun in the Rain and Sun:
5th Annual IN Dunes National Lakeshore Outdoor Experience
Question: Wanna do it again?
Answer: Yeah!
Having just ran and stumbled down a 70' sand dune down to the beach, the young man from the Chicago Boys & Girls Club was enthusiastic about climbing back up the dune and plunging back down again, which he did, several times.
The weekend of October 3 and 4, 2009, brought about 65 youth from various Boys & Girls Clubs in Chicago for a weekend of outdoor exploration and education. Braving cold temperatures and occasional rain half of the youth, hiked the Cowles Bog Trail, where Henry Cowles conducted his groundbreaking work that lead to the creation of the science of ecology. While hiking they also engaged in some ecological restoration work by cutting the non-native exotic Oriental Bittersweet vine and squished through the deep mud along a short boardwalk in the bog itself. At least two people left shoes behind, stuck in the mud, when they took a step.
The other half climbed the 123' Mt. Baldy, taking in views of downtown Chicago, just visible on the horizon across Lake Michigan. They also walked through oak savanna and learned how open sand dunes become wooded mountains.
The evening brought Dr. James Louderman from the Field Museum and his massive insect collection...dead and alive. There were oohs and aaahhs and some screams as Dr. Louderman let a tarantula walk in their hands, passed around a black widow, and turned on a black light to show how scorpions glow. He also fielded questions like what kind of spider bit Spiderman and what were the bugs in The Mummy (black widow and scarab bettle. Note: neither insect can do what was protrayed in the movies - there are no radioactive mutant black widows and scarab bettles eat dung, not human flesh!).
After dinner, the highlight of the weekend. The night hike, no artificial illumination permitted. One young man almost turned back, admitting a fear of the dark. In the end he did the entire hike, including the solo walk down a trail in the woods. It all ended with a roaring camp fire and smores.
Sunday brought sunny skies and warm temperatures. Sack lunches were packed and the kids switched their destinations, half to Mt. Baldy and half to the Cowles Bog.
At the end of their bus ride back to Chicago, kids from different neighborhoods were saying good-bye to one another, having forged a new bond in nature.
Think of Chicago and wild nature probably does not come to mind, but just a few miles from downtown lie the Forest Preserves...68,000 acres of public land; home to wondrous and rare ecosystems like dolomite prairie, oak savanna, oak-hickory woodlands, seeps and fens. 68,000 acres to hike, bird watch, picnic, and unwind from the pressures of urban life.
The partnership between the Boys & Girls Club of Chicago's Keystone Program and Sierra Club's Building Bridges to the Outdoors and Inner City Outings programs, seeks to introduce youth to the wonders of nature in our Forest Preserves by taking them to the Preserves to hike, conduct ecological stewardship, and more!
Urban Nature Needs Special Care: Stewardship and Service
Humans and nature in northeastern Illinois have always interacted, with humans playing an important role in preserving nature. Native Americans frequently burned the wetlands, woodlands, and prairies over the millennia. Modern Americans introduced species from far away lands, stopped igniting fires, and created the Forest Preserve system to protect nature from development. With introduced species of plants and the stopping of fires the health of the Preserves has seriously declined.
Enter the Boys & Girls Club of Chicago's Keystone Youth Leadership Program. With support from BBTO and volunteers from the Chicago Inner City Outings program young people from many different BGCC are visiting Forest Preserves a minimum of 4-times per year. By visiting the same place over the course of a year, the youth are able to see the results of their stewardship work, experience the changing of the season, and gain a sense of ownership.
By conducting stewardship of the Preserves, the youth from the Boys & Girls Clubs are learning about the science of ecological restoration, the differnce between native and invasive non-native species, the critical role that fire plays in maintaining the Preserves health, and gaining job skills.
"Ya''know, I actually had fun today." It was then that I knew with certainty that this new partnership was on the right track.
I was walking back to the bus after a 3-hour stewardship and service outing with twelve youth from a Boys & Girls Club of Chicago when one of the boys quietly said this. It was only the two of us and, after this admission of fun, he said no more. We boarded the bus and after a quick head count drove back to the grid, asphalt, and concrete of the west-side of Chicago.
For more information, contact:
Doug Chien, Conservation Program Coordinator
312.251.1680, doug.chien@sierraclub.org