Out with the buckthorn and honeysuckle, make way for the oaks at McHenry County Conservation District

You couldn’t see the trees for the bushes when he started volunteering to clean up Stickney Run Conservation Area, site steward Pete Jackson said.

He started volunteering at the park, part of the McHenry County Conservation District, seven or eight years ago, shortly after moving to McHenry County and just before he retired, Jackson said.

Now, Jackson is at the park off State Park Road in McHenry three or four times a month, helping to clear out the invasive and non-native buckthorn and honeysuckle that have taken over parts of the park.

As site steward, Jackson directs volunteers and has assembled an email list to let them know when workdays are planned.

Red-headed woodpeckers are the classic bird of oak savanna. When I see any of those, I know that is why we are doing all of this.”

—  Pete Jackson, site steward at Stickney Run Conservation Area

On Friday, new volunteers were invited to come out to work and learn. They were given leather gloves, safety goggles and bow saws or branch loppers to help clear out the overgrowth.

Tony Tucker and Steve Byers brought more horsepower – electric or gas chainsaws so they could take down some of the larger boxelder trees that also have found a home in the park.

“We look to [Jackson] for guidance, but we are careful to not take down any oak trees” that may have started growing, Tucker said.

Stickney Run is an oak savanna, Jackson said, but over the years, the boxelder – a native tree – has cropped up, and with the two bush species cluttering the woodland, it’s harder for the oak trees to propagate.

“Years ago, I saw the sign that says this is an oak savanna,” Jackson said. “All I saw was the buckthorn, and I thought, ‘We have to do something about that.’ ”

Getting the weeds and bushes cleared out is a three-step process, he said. First, they cut down the invasive woody plants. Second, the remaining roots will be chemically treated, and finally, the area is reseeded with native plants and grasses.

“The grasses compete with the invasive trees” and prevent them from gaining a foothold again, Jackson said.

If residents got rid of the buckthorn on their own properties, it would help prevent their spread, too, Sarah Eisenberg said. She’s been volunteering for the conservation district for so many years that she’s forgotten when she started.

Currently, 50% of the woodland in both McHenry and Lake counties is covered in buckthorn.

“There is no good use for buckthorn,” Eisenberg said, adding that she recently attended a Lake County Conservation District talk on the invasive plant.

She encouraged residents to reach out to the University of Illinois Extension service, conservation districts or forest preserves to learn more about how to get rid of the plants and learn which native species to plant to prevent them from spreading.

Another volunteer, LeeAnn Ali, said she’s been able to help with planting native species, as she’s gone to summer programs in which volunteers collect seeds just before they drop.

It was her second year of volunteering at the conservation district the Friday after Thanksgiving.

“I loved it last year, and it was something outside to do today,” Ali said.

On Friday, the 10 volunteers on-site focused on one area between a walking path and up to a fence line marking the park’s borders. An area across the path was cleaned out last year and is now a meadow of goldenrod, Jackson said.

“It is more open ... to take the land back to where the oaks can propagate,” Jackson said.

Jackson said he knows their efforts are working when he sees and hears woodpeckers among the oaks.

“Red-headed woodpeckers are the classic bird of an oak savanna,” he said. “When I see any of those, I know that is why we are doing all of this.”