Kishwaukee Fen - an introduction to a fine, needy place

A chrysalis is paranormal.

Fens are enchanting.

This fen needs Friends.

Chrysalis of Baltimore checkerspot butterfly,

which may still survive

in this orphan fen nature preserve

This adventure and discovery began when John Nelson of the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission asked us - "the Friends" - to take a look at some “legally preserved” sites that seemed to have been abandoned. When we looked at Kishwaukee Fen, its magical quality and vulnerability called out to us … like a baby in a basket on our doorstep.

A 30-acre nature preserve with 25 acres of  trouble - reed canary grass and buckthorn - closing in on five acres of surviving rare perfection. (Some of those 25 acres of degradation were formerly farmed but included in the preserve as important buffer. Some were sedge meadow over-run by invasives. All could be, can be, and deserve to be restored to health and quality.)

The team that made the initial fen plan was made up of Rebeccah Hartz, John Nelson, Steve Byers, Amy Doll, Will Overbeck, Megan Oropeza, Eriko Kojima, and me. (See Endnote 1.) In the photo above, in early spring, in the stubble of last year's reed canary grass, bright yellow marsh marigold still thrives. 

But the gems of the site are its fens. The diagram below provides the basic idea:

The three types of fens shown above are not always so distinct; that is, some fens can be a blend of these three types. But they're fairly distinct here at "the Kish." There is one hanging fen, two domed fens, and one basin fen. 

The fen water starts deep in a glacial moraine rich with limestone.  As pure rainwater percolates through the moraine, it dissolves calcium and magnesium carbonates from the limestone and becomes highly basic (the opposite of acidic).  Most plants and microorganisms have a hard time growing in extremely basic (also called alkaline or calcareous) environments such as these. Specialist "fen plants" adapted to such places thrive here with the benefit of genes that in the future may help food plants adapt to changing climatic conditions. You can meet some of these plants below.  Decomposition of plant litter is slow in fens, and over centuries peat builds up. Peatlands are said to store an immense amount of carbon, more even than tropical rainforests – so conserving and better understanding fens is crucial for many reasons in our warming world.   

When the hydrology of fens is disrupted, the mineral water stops protecting the peat, and the peat puts its carbon into the air as carbon dioxide and methane. The Illinois Nature Preserves Commission studied our region's remnant fens and found that Kishwaukee Fen had especially good water, the least polluted by salt. 

At Kishwaukee Fen, the photo below shows the top of the hanging fen:

Around the springs here, the vegetation includes grass of Parnassus, arrow grass, turtlehead, valerian, and a long list of rare, highly-specialized plants. 

I'm sorry to report that this gem is marred by a massive buckthorn in the middle, and hundreds more just off-screen to the right. 

That the seep areas were especially well preserved was demonstrated by the presence of tufa, a crystalline rock that forms here when the water warms up and the dissolved minerals precipitate out. Some people protest, “Crystalline?? ” they say. “It's just brown!” Yes, these crystals aren't shiny; they're just brown, but curious and special all the same - new rock forming in the air on top of peat. See below. 

Like grass of Parnassus, arrow grass is not a grass at all. Why do fen plants have such strange names? Arrow grass is the curious wildflower shown below. The leaves are grasslike. The fleshy flowers are greenish, tinged with purple, and arranged in a tall spike. Two endangered species of arrow grass have been found at this fen. (The pointy yellow things at the bottom right of the photo are the reproductive parts of a sedge, of which this preserve has at least eight rare and-tricky-to-identify species.)

Cotton grass (below) is another of this preserve's rare plants. It too is not a grass. 

Now for some fall photos.

Ugly. Here in the foreground, that green mat is invasive, non-diverse reed canary grass. It has displaced nature in a former high-quality sedge meadow. In the middle distance, the tan area is the raised fen, which has resisted invasives longer than the sedge meadow because of the calcareous water. 

Now we step up on the raised fen. Vastly more flowers will bloom after a burn, but you can get a hint of the richness here. The blue is the fringed gentian. The yellow is bog goldenrod, nearly finished blooming. A lot of the green here is valerian, that favored food plant of the Baltimore checkerspot. The purple is the native, common New England aster. Okay, some common plants live here too. 

Kalm's lobelia, a fen specialist, named for Peter Kalm, sent to North America from Sweden by Linnaeus to catalog the plants of the new world. This beauty was special enough to name after Peter. 

This is the fen fringed gentian, showing its unusual petals, with the fringes at the base of the petals. But what's important in the photo above is that drying brown seedhead at the top. With our help, rare seeds are the future. When we clear the brush and other invasives, we'll sow the rare seed needed for ecosystem recovery. 

October 17th was the kick-off event that introduced the Fen in person to potential stewards. Being a steward is an honor, a privilege, a joy, and righteous work. Doing it with a team of like-minded people can be a pleasure. 

The photo below was taken in the center of the buckthorn patch that overhangs and has shaded out part of the hanging fen ... and extends back into the former prairie. A glacial boulder (shown below) will one day stand again in prairie - instead of brush.

The photo below shows the brush at the edge of the fen. It should not be there. During the kick-off we started cutting it back and burned it in a bonfire. Later we will plant hand-gathered seeds where the brush had killed all.

On that kick-off day, about 40 volunteer stewards worked together to help restore this living treasure? (See Endnote 2.)

The next fen photo shows a little slice of what needs to expand - to be sustainable and support larger numbers of the fen animals. 

The rare Baltimore checkerspot butterfly (shown below, mating, from another site) has been recorded at Kishwaukee Fen. Its tiny caterpillars utterly depend, in their first year of life, on turtlehead - a wildflower present at the Fen in small numbers. With burns and invasives control, the turtleheads will likely increase, and the checkerspots may become common here once again. We hope. Time will tell. 

Mating butterflies (along with seeds waiting to be gathered) represent a thriving future for the fen, sedge meadow, and prairie of this Illinois Nature Preserve. 

As soon as more Kishwaukee Fen restoration events are scheduled (in a week or two?) check this blog and the Friends website. 

Endnotes

Endnote 1

Who are the people who came together to plan a rescue of this worthy remnant of rare nature? All of us are stewards of other sites. It is our hope that, with our help, a Friends of Kish Fen group will form here - to care for this treasure. 

Rebeccah Hartz is a steward at Somme Woods and Friends leader who is volunteering as "point person" for organizing the Kishwaukee Fen kick-off.

John Nelson is a field rep for the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission (see Endnote 2). He's in charge of all northern counties, that is couple of hundred preserves, so you can understand why he can provide only so much help to The Kish. 

Steve Byers is the recently retired field rep for the Commission. In the past he has burned Kish Fen and given it what attention time allowed.

Amy Doll is director of the new Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves. She is working to find more resources and constituency to our state's more than 600 Nature Preserves, the number of which, thankfully, is increasing. But the insanely slim stewardship budget for them is not. Perhaps that will soon change, but "enough" funding to stop the deterioration is a very long reach away. 

Kevin Scheiwiller of Citizens for Conservation. 

Megan Oropeza of the Land Conservancy of McHenry County. 

Eriko Kojima, professionally, is a Japanese-English interpreter. But she spends the lion's share of her time volunteering for the Friends and at many preserves. 

Stephen Packard writes this blog and helps out with the work.

Endnote 2

What groups are helping (in a variety of larger and smaller ways) with this kick-off?

The Village of Lakewood owns this Nature Preserve. Village Manager Jean Heckman, Village President David Stavroupoulos, and Village Trustee April Runge have been especially supportive in the planning and empowering this new stewards community. 

The Illinois Nature Preserves Commission provides legal protection and as much stewardship help as staffer John Nelson has time and resources for. 

Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves is a statewide volunteer organization, formed in 2019 to find additional resources - and support volunteer communities to provide care that our preserves dearly need. .

Citizens For Conservation, which donated rare local prairie seed to start restoring quality to the upland prairie areas. CFC can give us larger amounts of seed if we help them gather it next summer and fall at a seed gathering workday. 

The Land Conservancy of McHenry County which has responsibility for more than 4,500 acres of natural land. They generously contribute to Kishwaukee Fen are much outreach, publicity, and resources as they can. Thank you, director Lisa Haderlein and ecologist Meghan Oropeza. 

Endnote 3

Oh, and finally, the answer to one Frequently Asked Question: "If this is and Illinois Nature Preserves, why has it been deteriorating so gruesomely??" In fact, why isn't every acre of all 600 Nature Preserves rapidly recovering biodiversity to the fullest of its potential???

Part of the answer is that caring for nature in the modern world is more challenging than people had expected. Another part is that the vision and ambition of Illinois' model Nature Preserve System is so high ... in comparison with taxpayer and elected rep understanding. There's not remotely enough funding or staff to care for these areas without generous volunteers. There's more answer in a related but different kind of kick-off blog post. 

See also: "Who should design and replace these signs?" below.

Acknowledgements

Fen diagram from Kost and Hyde. 2009. Exploring the Prairie Fen Wetlands of Michigan

Photo credit for Baltimore checkerspot chrysalis goes to Sara Bright.

Photo credit for Baltimore checkerspots mating: Barbara Spencer.

Photo credits for Kish Fen photos, below, to Amy Doll and Rebeccah Hartz.

Photo credit and thanks for the Internet grass-of-Parnassus photo to D. Chayka, turtlehead to Peter Dziuk, and bee's butt to Mary Holland with Naturally Curious.   

Thanks for proofing and edits to Christos Economou, Amy Doll, and Eriko Kojima. 

Bonus Photos!

Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves director Amy Doll recently sent me some compelling shots she and Rebeccah Hartz took this summer. They evoke interesting stories. 

The first one (below) is the champ. I labeled it "squashed". The foreground shows solid, malignant reed canary grass (RCG). The vegetation that the RCG has wiped out here likely includes turtlehead and other species of moist prairie. Above it (not especially visible here) is the hanging fen. It's hidden by aggressive species like cat-tail and sawtooth sunflower, that survive and increase at the edge of the RCG. (Amy took a photo of the hanging fen itself, which comes next in this post.) But in the photo below, the invisible hanging fen is squashed between the RCG and a wall of buckthorn and other invading woody plants. This was a prairie fen, surrounded by prairie. Oh, how happy the fen will be to expand and recover when the RCG and buckthorn are pushed back and the fen can recover. (This not-quite-visible-in-this-photo hanging fen, one of three in this preserve, is about twenty feet wide and runs down the slope for perhaps 30 or 40 feet.)

The next photo shows the hanging fen, close up. The white flower is the rare grass of Parnassus. More about this photo, below. 

One of the many open "seeps" is on the upper right, and the yellow buds of the rare fen goldenrod (Solidago ohioensis) are on the upper left. It's not easy to take excellent wildflower photos. To illustrate, below is Amy's close-up photo of grass of Parnassus.

Then comes a photo of this same species from a more expert photographer:

I'm trying to make a couple of points here. 1) Skill, practice, and learning are needed to take excellent photos of rare biodiversity. 2) We need such photos to convey to the wider citizen public how precious and special these places are, but at times, if they're not careful, photographers do more harm than good. For more on this, see "Three Pleas to Photographers" below. 

The above photo shows one of the "raised" of "domed" fens, in the foreground. The hanging fen is visible with brush hanging over - on the slope behind it. The brush that has shaded out some of the fens and prairie are on the horizon. That brush is one of our first priorities as the new "Friends" community here organizes stewardship.

This is an important photo, because it evokes some of the history and challenge. Should the main sign really say "No Dumping and Do Not Enter"? Wouldn't it be better to have the main sign welcome people to this precious and important place? Is the Fen really protected by the Federal Government? No, it's protected by state law ... to some degree. But what this fen needs will most likely come from us - the volunteer stewards. There should be legal access. There should be a trail constructed that would allow visitors to marvel at and enjoy this splendid place, without damaging it. 

Here's another signpost and what's left of the sign. Perhaps it was hit by an errant golf ball. Red Tail Golf Course is south of the Fen, and one of our little jobs will be to weed the golf balls out of adjacent vegetation. But as to the signage, it should indicate that this treasure is protected by the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission and the Village of Lakewood, which owns it. 

Who should design and replace these signs? Should it be the staff of the Nature Preserves Commission, with one person having responsibility for about one hundred such preserves? Should it be the Village of Lakewood, which has no nature preserve staff and a great many other pressing demands? 

No. We, the volunteer friends of nature preserves, should do it - in cooperation with and approval from those strapped government bodies. The Illinois Nature Preserves System was visionary in the foresight that governments would not for the foreseeable future have the needed resources to provide all of what these preserves (and the public who appreciate them) deserve. The Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves are increasingly energized by the great people with diverse skills and interests who rise to this mission.  

One final flower photograph:

This is turtlehead, the plant that the Baltimore checkerspot butterfly depends on. See below. 

Four Pleas to Photographers 

1. First, do no harm. There's something seriously wrong with a photograph made while the photographer badly trampled a tiny, very-high-quality, remnant ecosystem. 

2. If you're a beginner, don't try to learn photography in a sensitive natural area, unless you can to do it from a secure trail. (With restoration, maybe someday it will be okay for photographers to roll around big restored areas like buffalos.)

3. Especially in the saturated peat soils of a fen, trampling can gradually turn a delicate natural community into mud and death. If you're sinking down into peat, please don't go there. Brush in wetlands can be cut in the winter, when the delicate soil is frozen. Maybe we can develop some sort of trail surface that will work in fens (and not burn up, like a wooden boardwalk would). 

And one final-final irresistible shot of a bee's butt - while in the act of helping the fen (photo thanks to Mary Holland of Naturally Curious):

The bumblebee pollinates a turtlehead flower. Those bulging orange things are collected pollen on this bee's legs, to be brought back to the nest for food, but in the process fertilizing seeds for the next generation of turtleheads. 

The fen needs more turtleheads because first-year checkerspot caterpillars survive only by eating  turtlehead leaves. (In their second year, the caterpillars can eat nearby valerian, betony, and some other species.)

The human being is the only species that can save all this. 

Look for more Kishwaukee Fen news and plans from time to time on this blog and at the Friends website.