Jacques Nuzzo leads 80 girl scouts in warm up exercises before the art and nature program. Click here for more pictures and to see some of the girls' artwork.

With a red-tailed hawk and a great horned owl serving as live models, girl scouts of the Shemamo Council work on drawings during the Art and Nature program.

Scouts snap pictures of Spud the great horned owl. Pictures, drawings and notes go into the girls' journals.

Diary of a Restoration

3nd Installment, March 8, 2003

On Saturday, March 8, scouts gathered in the fellowship hall of the First Congregational United Church of Christ in Decatur for a fun morning of art and education. Since the weather still isn't quite warm enough to resume work on the restoration, it was thought that a special program to get scouts thinking about nature again would be appropriate.

Jacques Nuzzo and Jane Seitz presented Solo the red-tailed hawk and Spud the great horned owl and gave a brief natural history presentation. Jacques also talked about the role artists, like John James Audubon, play in helping raise the public's awareness of birds and nature.

Then the birds were perched out in easy view of the scouts who had time to draw pictures. The birds served as live models for the scouts. Follow this link for a photo album.

Later, scouts received an update on the restoration work. The IRC habitat restoration is broken into three portions, with some work being done in all three areas.

1. Prairie: A 1.5 acre prairie reconstruction is on schedule to be planted in May. Flower seeds have been purchased, and arrangements have been made for a special seed drill to be used to plant the prairie. A study garden made up of nearly 100 mature bare-root plants will be installed by the scouts. This garden should mature and flower the first summer, giving scouts an idea what the restored prairie will look like in 2-3 summers.

2. Woodland and bottomland forest: Vern LaGesse and Charlene Falco of LaGesse and Associates ecological restoration firm toured the property that same afternoon in preparation for a burn to be conducted this spring or next fall. Vern and Charlene have agreed to supervise the burn that should help rejuvenate the woods, help eliminate non-native plants and promote the growth of woodland wildflowers.

3. Savanna: Vern identified a few trouble spots in the valley, including a stand of Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima), a non-native tree that will take over the hillside if not removed. He will identify possible strategies for removing invasive and non-native trees, shrubs and plants.

The prairie study garden is ready to be planted. Bare root plants should be shipped to the IRC while they are still dormant in late March or early April.

More activities are now in the planning stages. If you have questions about this unique partnership, email the Illinois Raptor Center at: barnowl@illinoisraptorcenter.org.