Matt Van Acker saws down one of the main branches of an overgrown buckthorn plant. The woody shrub, originally introduced to North America in the late 1880’s as an ornamental plant, spreads rapidly and crowds out native species. | jwhidden@dailyherald.com
Every Thursday and Saturday morning, Matt Van Acker puts on his work gloves, grabs his curved hand saw and leaves his home in Barrington on foot, walking south across a vast swath of open marshland. Often, he is accompanied by the distinct bugle call of a sandhill crane flying overhead.
Finally, cresting a small hill, Van Acker arrives at an overgrown patch of invasive buckthorn where several other people already are at work sawing away at the stubborn, woody plants. Soon, the group of volunteers will replace the European shrubs with native prairie plants, driven by a vision of what the land might have looked like hundreds of years ago.
“In the long run, it’s going to be a good change,” said Van Acker, who began volunteering with Barrington-based Citizens for Conservation a few years ago when he first looked out his window and saw the restoration crew. “I get to gaze across the prairie and see the progress.”
The natural area near Van Acker’s home is one of 14 locations managed by Citizens for Conservation, a volunteer-run nonprofit that is slowly but surely transforming the 777 acres in its care from open fields and abandoned farmland into native prairies, wetlands and savannas.
The task is easier said than done — especially with limited insight into what that acreage looked like in the past. The group’s primary references include photos from 1939 county mapping data, public land survey notes from the 1830s and clues from the land itself.
“As we restore, we look across the landscape to see what’s there and we look at the soil,” group Vice President Jim Anderson said. “The intention of CFC is to go slow and get it done correctly.”
Though the progress is a slow march, 12-year volunteer Steve Smith said one of the reasons he’s come to enjoy conservation so much is how tangible the work is.
“If anybody told me 12 years ago I would find conservation and stick with it, I would’ve told them they’re crazy,” Smith said with a chuckle. “It’s a wonderful way to connect the dots (of nature).”
Since first trying out a workday all those years ago, Smith said he still learns something new about ecology and restoration each day.
“Every time you ask a question, there are 10 questions after that,” he said.
Despite nearly 50 years under its belt, Anderson said the group as a whole also is mindful that they don’t know everything.
“As restoration ecologists, we still don’t know what we’re doing. We’re learning all along,” he said. “By bringing back the heart of the system, we’re hoping we’re bringing everything along.”
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Jenny Whidden is a climate change and environment writer working with the Daily Herald through a partnership with Report For America supported by The Nature Conservancy. To help support her work with a tax-deductible donation, see dailyherald.com/rfa.
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