Take flight: try birdwatching in your preserves

Posted on by
2

Post by Brett Peto

This article appears in the spring 2026 issue of Horizons, the award-winning quarterly magazine of the Lake County Forest Preserves in northern Illinois.

It’s also available as an episode of our Words of the Woods podcast.

Rose-breasted grosbeak: This 8-inch-tall migratory bird is named for the male's triangular, rose-red chest patch. Illustration © Samantha Gallagher.
Rose-breasted grosbeak: This 8-inch-tall migratory bird is named for the male’s triangular, rose-red chest patch. Illustration © Samantha Gallagher.

At first light, a wetland at Rollins Savanna Forest Preserve (Grayslake) stirs to life. Red-winged blackbirds trumpet conk-la-REE-look-at-ME songs from swaying cattails. Wood ducks tip forward to eat plants below the water’s surface, rear ends bobbing in the air.

A great blue heron stands motionless onshore, amber-yellow eyes searching the shallows for tasty fish. The fresh smells of spring drift on a casual breeze as the landscape comes alive. Birdwatching gives you front-row seats to these compelling scenes, especially in Lake County.

Continue reading →

Telling the whole story: sharing Native voices

Posted on by
Reply

Post by Heather Johnson, Nicole Stocker and Brett Peto

This article appears in the winter 2025 issue of Horizons, the award-winning quarterly magazine of the Lake County Forest Preserves in northern Illinois.

Every acre in Lake County tells a story—often many at once.

Your forest preserves span 31,600 acres, including the traditional homelands of Native peoples. Indigenous cultures existed here starting at least 12,000 years ago, and the community maintains vibrant connections to the land today.

The Forest Preserves and its Dunn Museum in Libertyville partner with American Indian groups to guide us as we share the story of this area.

Home: A wigwam is a single-family home of the Potawatomi, built upon strong poles made from bent tree saplings and covered with sheets of bark. Layering the walls with woven mats and dried grasses helped keep winter weather out. Watercolor by Tom Smith.
Home: A wigwam is a single-family home of the Potawatomi, built upon strong poles made from bent tree saplings and covered with sheets of bark. Layering the walls with woven mats and dried grasses helped keep winter weather out. Watercolor by Tom Smith.
Continue reading →

Night shift: Lake County’s nocturnal neighbors

Posted on by
Reply

Post by Brett Peto

This article appears in the fall 2025 issue of Horizons, the award-winning quarterly magazine of the Lake County Forest Preserves in northern Illinois.

A southern flying squirrel (Glaucomys volans) glides gracefully across the nighttime sky. Weighing only 1–3 ounces, this small, nocturnal mammal uses loose skin like a wing-suit to stay aloft. The species is native to North America—including Lake County—and Central America.
A southern flying squirrel (Glaucomys volans) glides gracefully across the nighttime sky. Weighing only 1–3 ounces, this small, nocturnal mammal uses loose skin like a wing-suit to stay aloft. The species is native to North America—including Lake County—and Central America.

When you settle into bed for the evening, another world awakens. Flying squirrels launch between trees, bats emerge from roosts and owls begin their silent hunts.

Your forest preserves provide the food, water, shelter and darkness these animals need during their night shifts. Despite their abundance and proximity, our nocturnal neighbors can seem mysterious. The dark obscures their unique activities.

Let’s peek behind the curtain.

Continue reading →

Step into serenity with forest bathing

Posted on by
5

Guest post by Kim Mikus

This article appears in the summer 2025 issue of Horizons, the award-winning quarterly magazine of the Lake County Forest Preserves in northern Illinois.

Photographer Dahai Zang snapped a fairytale scene at Buffalo Creek in Long Grove. These two white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) fawns sport hundreds of white spots on their rusty-brown coats. The markings help them blend into sun-dappled forests and meadows.
Photographer Dahai Zang snapped a fairytale scene at Buffalo Creek in Long Grove. These two white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) fawns sport hundreds of white spots on their rusty-brown coats. The markings help them blend into sun-dappled forests and meadows.

Imagine stepping into the woods, leaving behind the noise and stress of daily life. As you pause and breathe, a sense of calm takes over. There’s no rush or destination, only the soothing quiet of the woodland. Welcome to forest bathing, a practice that invites you to reconnect with yourself and nature.

Forest bathing, also called shinrin-yoku or forest therapy, involves immersing yourself in the outdoors—not through exercise or hiking, but by simply being present in the natural world. Its roots stretch back to a 1980s-era effort launched by Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture to help the country’s population reduce stress and improve health.

Forest bathing doesn't require equipment. Just a picnic blanket will do.
Forest bathing doesn’t require equipment. Just a picnic blanket will do.
Continue reading →

Every acre strong: The Community Campaign for Lake County Forest Preserves

Posted on by
Reply

Post by Brett Peto

This article appears in the spring 2025 issue of Horizons, the award-winning quarterly magazine of the Lake County Forest Preserves in northern Illinois.

every acre is ESSENTIAL

Since 1958, the Lake County Forest Preserves has stewarded public funds to protect, manage and restore more than 31,200 acres across 65 sites to provide a healthy, resilient home for 28,850 native plant, animal and insect species as well as miles of trails and countless experiences for all to enjoy.

The Forest Preserves is an essential part of our community. Every acre of restored forest preserve land provides cleaner air, improved water quality, enhanced recreational and health benefits, habitat for pollinators, increased carbon storage and greater flood reduction.

But our restored lands face ongoing threats from invasive species, exotic pests and unpredictable weather. Today’s changing climate requires forward-thinking solutions and innovative, high-quality stewardship of the forest preserves to ensure they remain resilient in an uncertain future.

Continue reading →

Gifts from the glaciers: Lake County’s legacy and future of ice

Posted on by
Reply

Post by Brett Peto

This article appears in the winter 2024 issue of Horizons, the award-winning quarterly magazine of the Lake County Forest Preserves in northern Illinois.

Ice seems temporary. It melts in a glass. It disappears at a sunbeam’s touch. It ebbs with the first relief of spring. But some ice leaves deeper marks than a cold drink.

On the banks of the Fox River in the southwestern corner of Lake County, Illinois, you can see back through time. Not long ago on the 4.5-billion-year arc of Earth’s history, a wall of ice 700–2,000 feet tall covered everything in view today. There was no wide, shallow river. No trees or flowers. Only ice.

Today, 691 acres near the river’s eastern shore make up Grassy Lake Forest Preserve in Lake Barrington. The preserve features 5.6 miles of trails, six scenic overlooks, sedge meadows and mature oak woodlands. Set back less than a quarter mile from the low, forested riverfront is what looks like a medium-sized hill.

A 1.6-mile trail makes a half-spiral as it ascends the hill to an overlook with magnificent views of the Fox River. There, you can rest on a bench, watch the water flow by and ponder this …

You’re sitting on a gift from the glaciers.

Continue reading →

Charged up for change: our transition to net-zero energy

Posted on by
Reply

Post by Brett Peto

This article appears in the fall 2024 issue of Horizons, the award-winning quarterly magazine of the Lake County Forest Preserves in northern Illinois.

A profile view of the building looking west. Photo © Lake | Flato Architects.
A profile view of the building looking west. Photo © Lake | Flato Architects.

The building looks as if it’s always been there.

As though the floodplain forests of Ryerson Conservation Area in Riverwoods summoned
the smoky green walls, floor-to-ceiling windows and sleek roof.

But the new Ryerson Education Center (REC), opened spring 2024, is the culmination of three years of planning and an ambitious goal. Create a net-zero energy building that produces as much power as it consumes each year.

“We want to raise the bar and set the example for green buildings and environmental sustainability,” said Alex Ty Kovach, executive director of the Forest Preserves. “Our goal is that this new building will become a viable model of long-lasting, energy-efficient design.”

Continue reading →

Unraveling the science of habitat restoration

Posted on by
Reply

Guest post by Kim Mikus

This article appears in the summer 2024 issue of Horizons, the award-winning quarterly magazine of the Lake County Forest Preserves in northern Illinois.

From a young age, we’re often taught that planting trees is good for the environment. So, why do we see large areas of trees sometimes removed from your forest preserves, leaving the land temporarily ragged and brown?

The answer is habitat restoration, a sequence of land management activities that improve the health, ecological function and diversity of species at a particular site, according to ecologists at the Lake County Forest Preserves. Sometimes that process involves removing non-native, invasive trees and other species.

During restoration efforts, you may see dramatic visual differences.

Two images showing a 40-acre area at Greenbelt Forest Preserve (North Chicago) during and after restoration.
Continue reading →

17 years, 64 degrees, 100 decibels

Posted on by
4

Post by Brett Peto

The alarm clock is ready to ring for the periodical cicadas of Lake County. The previous mass emergence of these impressive bugs in 2007 set the alarm for 2024. During spring and summer 17 years ago, millions of cicadas tunneled out of the soil, crawled up trees, sang, mated and completed their life cycle. This will be a magical year for their offspring.

A True Bug

Adult periodical cicadas have dark bodies, red eyes and orange-veined wings. Illustration ©️ Samantha Gallagher.
Adult periodical cicadas have dark bodies, red eyes and orange-veined wings. Illustration ©️ Samantha Gallagher.
Continue reading →

Monitoring for the future

Posted on by
Reply

Post by Jen Berlinghof

It was a bone-chilling winter’s day at Captain Daniel Wright Woods in Mettawa—part of the Lake County Forest Preserves in northern Illinois—when a group of five gathered to monitor for the future. Our crew consisted of Restoration Ecologists Ken Klick and Dan Sandacz, Environmental Educator Eileen Davis, Environmental Communications Specialist Brett Peto and myself.

It’s all hands on deck for an ambitious new tree monitoring program with the lofty goal of sampling every woodland, upland forest and flatwoods habitat within the Forest Preserves every 10–15 years. Ken and Dan are spearheading this project.

In the field, the pair are like bookends. Ken has served 25 years at the agency, while Dan is fresh to the Forest Preserves, starting his tenure this past fall. The two have opted to take a collaborative approach, inviting volunteers from our Natural Resources and Education Departments to help with this significant undertaking.

A leisurely stream flows through Wright Woods in Mettawa. Photo © Lake County Forest Preserves.
A leisurely stream flows through Wright Woods in Mettawa. Photo © Lake County Forest Preserves.
Continue reading →