Planting the Seeds of Change by Restoring a Woodland

Charles River employees Adam and Jason spent their One Day doing natural resource restoration work that has been ongoing for many years at Mayslake Forest Preserve in Oakbrook, Illinois.

Their mission was to remove nonnative, invasive species (buckthorn and honeysuckle brush) from a woodland, the first step in its restoration. Then, herbicide was applied to keep the brush stumps from resprouting. Adam & Jason stacked the brush into large piles that would be burned later by forest rangers. After the burn, seeds of native prairie and savannah species were dispersed to hold the ground gained through their One Day effort.