This gallery contains 10 photos.

Post by Brett Peto

You don’t need me to tell you that 2020 has been a long year. In a pandemic, separated from routines, sometimes days go slow but months go fast, and vice versa. There are fewer anchors around which to pin our schedules like so many pieces of laundry on a clothesline. Some people have started baking homemade bread, assembling model kits, binging movies and podcasts, devouring piles of books, or playing long-distance board games over Zoom. Our strategies may vary, but I think it’s helpful to have as many coping mechanisms as we can gather this year.

One adopted or continued by many folks is spending more time outdoors. Whether in yards, neighborhoods, parks, or the Lake County Forest Preserves in northern Illinois, people are discovering or rediscovering the value of nature, even as the thermometer dips. Fresh air; sunshine; wide horizons; the sounds of wind in trees and water over rocks; birds and squirrels and foxes living their private lives; the calm curiosity to find out where a trail goes and the confidence that it’s designed to go somewhere.

We’ve seen gobsmacking levels of visitation since March. Daily average visits have consistently been 40% higher than previous records. Early spring numbers looked more like those of midsummer weekends. And our stats are chiefly based on preserves where car counters are installed in the parking lots. So, they don’t capture anyone who arrives at a preserve without a car, often the case along regional routes such as the Des Plaines River Trail and the Millennium Trail.

Which is fantastic. I’m thrilled that tens or even hundreds of thousands have found solace, stress relief, and, yes, fun in their preserves. (Fun is still possible in 2020, I swear.)

I’m also thrilled that talented photographers have continued to capture and upload photos to our group Flickr pool despite the pandemic. Lake County’s flora, fauna, and natural areas are always good fodder for gorgeous shots. I find it reassuring that people are still practicing their skills and, oddly enough, that other species don’t know what human society has experienced these past several months.

The long-eared owl (Asio otus) photographed in a snowy woodland by Phil Hauck isn’t aware of the latest case numbers. The trees reflected on the surface of the Des Plaines River in Bob London’s enchanting fall photo let their leaves turn just like any other autumn, regardless of whether people walking by them wore masks they didn’t need last fall.

In turns, it’s validating, therapeutic, and necessary to talk with others about everything that’s happened in 2020. But I’d argue it’s also therapeutic to remind ourselves that for every negative headline, there’s a bird on a branch, singing songs vetted by evolution. For every holiday that doesn’t take the same shape it did before, there’s a trail through open space protected for public use in perpetuity. For the overwhelming rush of events, there’s a kaleidoscopic pattern on the surface of an icy pond, or a sycamore’s enchantingly spotty bark, or the promise that seasons change and a new one will come.

None of this is to say that nature outweighs the grief and loss you may have gone through recently. It doesn’t, or it doesn’t always. But I think it helps. Maybe it eases one percent of the year’s effects, or 20 percent, or 50 percent. No matter. I welcome help.

I also welcome pretty photos of the preserves. Enjoy this selection of my 10 favorite images from our wonderful Flickr photographers this year. (You’ve already seen two of them further up in the post.) And, hey—if you’re inclined afterwards to upload some shots from your camera or phone, you can do so here. I’d really appreciate it.

As always, thank you to our dear readers, without whom this blog would not exist. We hope our posts this year have provided education, entertainment, and encouragement to keep going. To get outside as much as you can, to learn a bit about the flora and fauna you encounter there, and to take comfort in the rhythms of the natural world. They are out there, steady and true.

So are the magnificent photographers who contribute to our group Flickr pool. Their talents at, well, preserving the preserves in visual form are second to none. I hope every veteran and budding shutterbug who turns their lens on the Lake County Forest Preserves finds something worthwhile to capture. In fact, I know they will; there are nearly 31,000 acres of possibilities.

We’ll be back next month—next year—with our regularly scheduled programming. Until then, visit a preserve, take a virtual program with our educators, or browse a bunch of digital resources we’ve gathered all in one place. Stay safe and happy new year.