Prairie Works

The 2010 Northwest Illinois Green Fair will be held on September 25th. This year it will be held at the Galena Convention Center in Galena, IL. This year marks the 3rd annual for this increasingly popular event.

Again, this years fair will offer opportunities for people of all age groups and interest levels to participate. Including: Presentations on renewable energy, green building and sustainable living, over 40 exhibitors representing a wide range of environmentally friendly products as well as children’s activities and an appliance, electronics and paint recycling collection.

Prairie Works is proud to be a Green Circle Sponsor of this event.

Cory Ritterbusch will be giving a presentation titled: Why Native Plants?

Information:

Where: Galena Convention Center (west side of Galena on Route 20)

When: Saturday September, 25 between 9:00 – 4:00

Admission: $5.00 (16 and under free)

See the website for more information: http://nwil-greenfair.com/

The Northwest Illinois Green Fair will be held on September 26 in Elizabeth, IL. Again, this years fair will offer opportunities for people of all age groups and interest levels to participate. Including: Presentations on renewable energy, green building and sustainable living, over 40 exhibitors representing a wide range of environmentally friendly products as well as a local wine tasting festival, children’s activities, local food cooking demo’s and electronics and paint recycling. New to this years fair is a green career/job workshop and an environmental art & craft show.

Cory Ritterbusch will be giving a presentation titled “Making Old Houses Green,” based on his experience of restoring an 1890′s farmhouse.

Information:

Where: High Community College West on Route 20 in Elizabeth, IL

When: Saturday September, 26 between 9:00 – 4:00

Admission: $5.00 (16 and under free)

See the website for more information: http://nwil-greenfair.com/

An exciting new program is available to the citizens of Northwest Illinois. I highly recommend readers of this website to participate. Cory Ritterbusch will be teaching the October 5th session titled, Ecosystem Management. Here is the official press release:

The University of Illinois Jo-Carroll Extension Unit is pleased to announce the formation of the Northwest Illinois Master Naturalist Program. This program will offer interested participants the ability to be trained by local and regional natural resource instructors about the natural communities found in the northwest Illinois area. Participants will be trained weekly, typically on Monday mornings from 8-12 over three months from August through October. Once training is completed participants are expected to complete a volunteer service project to become a certified Master Naturalist. Once certified the Master Naturalists are expected to annually conduct some level of volunteer stewardship and continuing training to maintain their certification. The curriculum will cover topics ranging from natural history, understanding the natural world, communicating with nature, and environmental ethics & philosophy. The course will also teach people about the natural communities ranging from aquatics, grassland and forestry to special communities, agricultural and urban communities. Also covered are will be ecosystems management, archaeology,  and volunteer service projects opportunities.

The program is scheduled to start August 3^rd and space is limited to 20 participants on a first come first serve basis until paid registration is full. Cost for participating in the program is $275. The U of I Extension and the JDCF are very excited about offering this great opportunity for individuals in northwest Illinois. Interested participants are encouraged to contact the Jo Daviess Extension Office at 815-858-2273 to register and Chris Kirkpatrick at the Jo Daviess Conservation Foundation at 815-858-9100 for details about program.

Happy Earth Day, everyone! 

Since its inception in 1970, Earth Day has grown into a celebration of the masses and is the one “holiday” that is celebrated by people of all races, religions, countries and beliefs around the world. We all have an impact on the environment. The goal of Earth Day is to raise awareness of the options that we have in order to reduce that impact.

During the past year, I have been involved in a discussion group, hosted by the diligent Dan Wenny. We met monthly on Sunday afternoons. The goal was to analyze household carbon footprints and to assist the other five households in the group, in reducing theirs. We traded tips, advise and took our carbon footprint numbers into an analytical process. Our carbon footprint was established using this calculator: Carbon Footprint Calculator 

The book, Low Carbon Diet,  was given to each of the households to guide us through the process. 

We all had a fun time discovering our habits and lifestyles and realized how they effect our footprint. Analyzing these numbers is a staticticians dream. As you would imagine, housholds with homes with higher square footage and housing more people resulted in the highest footprints. The average carbon footprint in the United States is around 55,00 pounds. In Germany it is 27,000 and in Kenya it is 400.

My houshold’s largest comsumptives were car mileage and water useage. This year we are attempting to reduce those two numbers, and chip away at the others, to give us a footprint of 30,000 carbon pounds next year. A simple Excel spreadsheet can assist you in keeping on track.

This is certainly a fun and engaging way to become more aware of your impacts on the environment. This next year we will become a group host and will help 5 other housholds reduce their carbon footprints. 

There are also many more decisions that can be made that the carbon calculator does not take into account, such as: Eating foods that are locally produced, purchasing used rather than new, buying goods that utilize environmentally friendly processes and of course landscaping with native plants.

Here are some Earth Day links:

http://simplylocalfood.com/ Local Food Group in Northwest Illinois

http://www.green-living.com/ Green Products

http://www.prairieworksinc.com/2008/04/22/earth-day-2008/  Last year’s Earth Day post

This week (Feb. 22-27) is National Invasive Weeds Awareness Week across the country. This year marks the 10th anniversary of this campaign that focuses on “preserving our natural heritage from the ravages of weeds.” Land managers, aquatic specialists, scientists, educators and public policy officials are gathering in Washington D.C. for a series of meetings on educating our federal policy makers and elected officials about the devastating impact of invasive weeds on the environment and economy.

Invasive weeds cost federal, state and local governments an estimated 125 billion dollars annually. A statistic that is rising quickly. Once established in a natural area, invasive species snowball into loss of bio-diversity. The negative effect on the native flora, fauna and aesthetics is most alarming to naturalists. Unfortunatly, the majority of invasive weeds occur on private lands where goverment has no control. So we all must do our part.

In the Upper Midwest our landscape has been highly altered due to aggressive and invasive plant species. One of the most destructive has been Garlic Mustard. Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata) came to the area 10-15 years ago and has since spread into our woodlands choking out our native more conservative species. Late winter and early spring are the optimum times of year to control this species. You can learn more about invasive species on this website here: http://www.prairieworksinc.com/services/invasive-species-removal/

A great video was recently produced about Garlic Mustard. View it here:Garlic Mustard 101

http://www.ipaw.org/ Invasive Plant Association of Wisconsin

http://www.chicagobotanic.org/invasiveplants/ Chicago Botanic Garden Information

I just returned from attending the 21st North American Prairie Conference in Winona, MN. The NAPC is the Super Bowl™ for prairie ecologists. I had a great time visiting with fellow colleagues, attending many presentations on restoration techniques, learning about Winona and studying some high quality prairies and supper clubs around the Mississippi River. I also had the great opportunity to listen to Wes Jackson speak and Immortal River author, Dr. Calvin Fremling signed my book.

My take home points from the conference are as follows:

• Jevons Parodox  is something I need to learn more about
• Parasitic plants such as Pedicularis canadensis will be an increasingly useful tool in restorations
• ‘Sumac’ received its name from ‘Shoemack’ as its tannins were used for tanning shoe leather
• Climate change is a very secret topic within high government ranks
• Diverse prairies offer the highest biomass yields of any alternative energy form
• Amorpha canescens will stay in one place for many decades

Wes Jackson’s keynote address on Friday was very inspiring. He talked of a future agriculture based on perennial plants of native origin. He dubbed this ”Perennial PrairieCulture.” He maintains a vision that by 2050 the current agricultural processes will be replaced by ones of sustainability. For that reason he stated, “Prairie restoration is one of the most important endeavours that a man can be engaged in.” Preaching to the choir certainly, preaching to humanity hopefully…

The 22nd North American Prairie Conference is to be held in 2010 at Cedar Falls, IA.

This is a reminder that Northwest Illinois’ first annual Green Fair will be occurring two weeks from today. We have organized a long list of knowledgeable speakers and exhibitors on sustainable living. I will be giving two presentations on Saturday. One titled “Saving Money with Sustainable Landscapes” and another titled, “What is Ecological Restoration?”

Hope to see you there! 

Green Fair 2008: Ideas & Products for Your Home & Business

June 27-28

Location: Highland Community College West, U.S. Highway 20, Elizabeth, Illinois.

Dinner and Keynote Speaker: Roy Buol, Mayor of Dubuque, Iowa
Friday, June 27, 7:00 PM. (reservation required)

The Green Fair is for home owners, business owners, families, kids, contractors, teachers — and you! It’s all about the tools for living lighter on the earth:

• Energy conservation.
• Green building techniques.
• Local and organic foods.
• Sustainable living.
• Natural lawn care.

Green Fair 2008 will include special sessions on various topics:

• Childrens’ activities, including worm composting.
• Backyard wildlife.
• Energy bicycle.
• Local food.

greenfair2008_brochure.pdf file with speaker schedule, reception info and exhibitor list.

 The logo we are required to include…

 An interesting exhibit has opened in Chicago this week. It explores the American obsession with lawns. The Notebaert Nature Museum is featuring “Lawn Nation: The Art & Science of the American Lawn” through September 7th. This exhibit dives deep into the lawn’s history in America and why alternatives should be utilized.

The exhibit is the first of its kind and uses a mix of videos, interactive displays, 30 commissioned pieces of artwork and 4 alternative lawns in front of the museum. Curators of the display have dubbed the grass, clover, dandelion mix out front the ‘Freedom Lawn” because of its low maintenance requirements. The press release states that homeowners pour three times more pesticides per acre than industrial farmers and that all lawns put together could carpet the state of Kentucky. I bet this is just a snippet of the wealth of information made available there.

If any of you city dwellers are able to view this exhibit, I would be interested to hear your comments.

If You Go:

Where: Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, 2430 N. Cannon Dr., Chicago

When: Through September 7th.

Cost: $9 for Adults and $7 for Seniors

Details: 773-755-5100 or www.chias.org

Today is Earth Day in the Northern hemisphere. The one day of the year where environmentalists can bask in environmental awareness. Earth Day has been held each year since 1970. It was the brainchild of Wisconsin senator Gaylord Nelson. Today, it is the only event celebrated simultaneously around the globe by people of all backgrounds, faiths and nationalities. More than a half billion people participate in Earth Day events annually. Each year many events are planned locally to promote sustainability and the cleaning of our land, air and water.

This year, Time magazine printed a special environmental issue to coincide with Earth Day. Its cover article, Why Green is the new Red, White and Blue digs deep into the current political status of the environment including some important information on the Lieberman-Warner Bill. Of course buying this issue at the newstand would be at the detriment of trees and would just help the logging industry. So, I suggest reading the article online here: http://www.time.com/time/

Today for some Green fun, I compiled a list of great Green websites for you to visit and a link to test your ecological footprint:

http://grist.org/ The Colbert Report of climate change

http://www.treehugger.com/ The go-to guide for sustainable living

http://www.realclimate.org/ Climate science from climate scientists (says it all)

http://www.ecorazzi.com/ What celebrities are doing to help the environment

Take the Ecological Footprint Quiz here:

http://www.earthday.net/footprint/info.asp

Happy Earth Day everyone.

It has been officially announced that the University of Illinois Extension, with a coalition of other local organizations (including Prairie Works), will be hosting the first annual Green Fair. Green Fair 2008: Ideas and Products for Your Home and Business will be held this June in Elizabeth, IL. Below is the official press release:

Set aside Friday, June 27, and Saturday, June 28 for the first area Green Fair! The theme for this years event is Ideas and Products for Your Home and Business. The fair will be a chance to meet retailers of green products, renewable energy resources, recycled and sustainably produced items for your business, office and home. There will be children’s activities, informative presentations and local food vendors.
The fair will be held at Highland Community College West (previously River Ridge High School). Look for more details in future newspaper articles, newsletters and flyer’s.
The Green Fair planning committee member organizations are: Baranski Hammer Moretta & Sheehy Architecture, Blackhawk Hills RC&D, Carroll County Economic Development Corp., Conservation Guardians of Northwest Illinois, Galena Territory Association, JoDaviess Conservation Foundation, Jo-Carroll Energy, Jo-Carroll Solid Waste Agency, JoDaviess County Office of Economic Development, Prairie Works Inc., The Prairie Enthusiasts and The University of Illinois Extension. 

If you have questions about the Green Fair, please contact Maggie Friedenbach, Recycling and Conservation Projects Coordinator, at University of Illinois Extension, 815.244.9444. You can also contact me at cory@prairieworksinc.com 

Hope to see you there!

It has been announced that the 21st North American Prairie Conference will be held in Winona, MN on August 4-8, 2008. The NAPC is held every other year and its locations have varied from Ontario, Canada to Texas but is usually held somewhere in the Midwest. Next year will be the first time that it will be held in the Driftless Area. The NAPC is a great resource for everyone from the hobbyist to the professional. There are a wide variety of topics to learn about and some great field trips to attend.

The first NAPC was originally called The Symposium on Prairies and Prairie Restoration and was held on September 14 and 15, 1968 at Knox College in Galesburg, IL, organized by prairie pioneer Peter Schramm. This symposium morphed into the Midwest Prairie Conference and became the North American Prairie Conference in 1978. A lot has changed since its humble begginings in 1968.

I attended the 2004 NAPC in Madison, WI and found it very rewarding. Mark your calenders to head to Winona State University next August. 

Cory Ritterbusch will be speaking at the Prairie Restoration Workshop on July 30 in Elizabeth, IL. The workshop is scheduled between 9-3 at the Elizabeth community building on route 20. Participants can view two local prairie restorations during the afternoon sessions. Advance registration is $25.00 and $35.00 after July 19. To learn more contact Mark Maidak at 815.858.2273. The workshop is co-sponsored by the Northwestern Illinois Land and Farm Preservation Coalition, The Prairie Enthusiasts and the University of Illinois Extension.