Sitting here in the cold of January I have circled March 1 on my calendar as something to look forward to. This is the return of the Wild Things Conference to our region at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont. This full day conference is like Comic-Con but for Chicagoland nature nerds.

The soul of the event is about a community of people getting together to celebrate the many great natural areas we have regionally and to share those deep lessons learned to anyone who will hear it. I always leave energized and inspired seeing so many professionals, volunteers, educators, and just curious people cohesively coming together.

Anyone and everyone interested in learning about the people, art or science of stewardship in nature can find something. I just spend a long time searching through the 150 different presentations for the day to fill out my personal agenda for the 10 time slots.

Locally, Ryan Sorrells will be presenting about how the Friends of Langham Island volunteer group, Kankakee River Fame, have now documented over 500 plant species there as the restoration has continued. An amazing story that just continues to surprise me.

In Kankakee County most of our woodlands are made up of oaks. There are five presentations about oaks and their management to choose from. I have signed for two of them to further my understanding. One about how to assess an Oak Woodland properly, Dan Carter has come up with a framework to do that, and he will share so others can get a better grasp on what they are seeing or not seeing.

Also about oaks is Ben Davies’ presentation on thinning oak savannas and woodlands. To restore these ecosystems back to a normal balance, you often must cut trees … but before you start your chainsaw perhaps one can have some key considerations to help make those tough decisions a little easier. No one wants to cut a tree and regret it later; I look forward to Ben’s thought process.

Many caught my eye but another worth sharing here is about hybrid cattails and their management. Cattails can overrun and crowd out high-quality wetland habitat fast. The hybrid has replaced the native broadleaf cattail in most areas you will come across.

Some folks from Loyola University will share their findings on reducing their abundance by repeatedly harvesting them. It is known that indigenous peoples of our area would harvest cattails from marshes, but that practice was mostly lost after the tribes were forced out of their homelands. I often wonder about the benefits and symbiotic nature of human disturbance in our natural areas that have been lost to time.

If you go to wildthingscommunity.org, you can get yourself a ticket to the conference and perhaps try on a little nature in 2025. Hope to see you there.