On Sunday, a group of volunteers will explore a vestige of an ancient shoreline in the south suburbs. They also plan to set it on fire.
The volunteers will be at Superior Street Prairie in Calumet City, preparing the site for a prescribed burn. They will also be gathering seeds, chopping and burning brush, and learning about an ongoing volunteer project to preserve the rare, ancient ecosystem for future generations.
“These places are kind of survivors of the last 200 years of population growth and development in Illinois,” said Jonathan Sabath, a field representative for Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves. “These little pockets that are invaluable for scientific understanding of what the ecosystems here were like before then.”
Thousands of years ago, what is now Calumet City laid along the banks of a glacial megalake called Lake Chicago, the ancestor of today’s Lake Michigan, Sabath said.
Many people, he said, are surprised to find such a unique piece of nature preserved so close by.
“One thing I’ve heard from a lot of neighbors is that they didn’t realize they were even allowed to go there. It’s a public park, right? But there’s a fence on the south side and the west line of it is power lines,” Sabath said. “Everyone who’s come out, I think, has said, ‘Wow, this is a really beautiful place,’ and it’s really special that not only are we allowed to be here, but this natural area really needs us to be here.”
The volunteer program is organized by Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves, a group that operates in concert with the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission to provide local support and maintenance of state land.
“The Illinois Nature Preserves Act was created in the ’60s. There was sort of this idea that you could put a fence around a nature preserve and then it was safe,” Sabath said. “Given the amount of disturbance to these ecosystems, it’s no longer enough just to protect them from becoming a parking lot, or whatever it may be. You actually have to have that stewardship part of it.”
That includes prescribed fires, to periodically clear the land and make space for new growth. The term “prescribed” is preferred over “controlled” because fire is never really under control, Sabath said. Other volunteer tasks include gathering and redistributing seeds, controlling invasive species and identifying and monitoring rare plants.
“Our goal is to build a long-term community, not just one-time cleanups,” said steward Sheba Abernathy. “We want to develop environmental education, we want to make sure that places like Superior Street Prairie stay thriving, that it won’t get to the position that it was in where it was just left untouched. It’s about legacy. It’s about passing down the care for creation.”
Abernathy was one of the first volunteers to join the project. She got involved, she said, when she was on a bike ride with Sabath and, on a break, he asked her if she liked nature.
“I was so squeamish, I didn’t know what was going to get me out there in the middle of that prairie,” Abernathy said. “Now I’m finding myself telling other people how transformative it is.”
Both Abernathy and Sabath said one of their favorite elements of the project is getting children involved and interested in nature. Abernathy is the founder of Need an Angel Sons and Daughters Association, a Chicago-area nonprofit aimed at supporting and empowering young people.
“One of my favorite things is seeing some of the kids come out. Some of the volunteer stewards who’ve been working at the site will bring their kids occasionally, and just seeing them get to play a little bit in a really beautiful, natural area that people don’t really think of this part of the Calumet region as having,” Sabath said.
The project has both ecological and social benefits, Sabath said. Rebuilding wetlands like the Superior Street Prairie allows the area to be more resilient to increasingly volatile weather events, such as flash floods. At the same time, people are able to build community with fellow volunteers and find value in the work.
“We’re living in an era where people are a lot lonelier than they used to be. We see one other kind of ecosystem service of these natural areas is their ability to bring people together,” Sabath said, “I’ve seen people fall in love and make friends through meeting through this work.”
“It’s actually become like a living classroom to us,” said Abernathy. “It’s a place that we come together and we learn, we restore, and we get this chance to just really reconnect with something bigger than ourselves.”
Sabath said that volunteers interested in coming out on Sunday should wear sturdy shoes and clothes they don’t mind getting dirty. Snacks, tools and gloves will be provided.
If you go…
Where: 999 Michigan City Road, Calumet City
When: 1 to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 19
Information/RSVP: superiorstreet@friendsilnature.org
