Jo Daviess County: Professional Restoration

When a site is so overgrown with weeds, invasives, and undesirable brush, the only thing that may save it is the effort of professionals.  Cory Ritterbusch, of PrairieWorks, Inc. and County Weed Commissioner, has been restoring land to native plants, and in some case, to pre-settlement flora for a decade.  He will take us to a site that has been - in his words - "cleared of invasive brush in the fall/winter of 2009, burned in spring 2010, seeded, managed for invasive's during the 2010 growing season, cleared of more brush in the winter of 2010-2011, burned in April of 2011, seeded, and invasives are currently being managed in anticipation of a fall 2011 burn."  At this Northwest Illinois Forestry Association tour, we will get to see how this land has responded, ask Cory about these treatments and their effects, and possibly see what this section of the county looked like in the early 1800s.  The exact location and directions will be posted in early August.