Monday, September 22, 2003
Special to suffredin.org

Cook County, Illinois

Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin, 13 th District, joined community volunteers from the North Branch Restoration Project, Friends of the Forest Preserves, Friends of the Morton Grove Forest Preserve, Chicago Wilderness and the Sierra Club on Saturday, September 20, 2003 for a work day at Miami Woods Forest Preserve in Morton Grove, Illinois.  

Local volunteers ages 7 to 70 put in over 300 hours and worked in designated managed areas in Miami Woods.   Along with Commissioner Suffredin, they harvested seed and cleared invasive buckthorn brush to restore flowers and grasses to the woods between the bike trail and river.   Removal of the heavy buckthorn shade will allow patches of sunlight to stimulate native plants to provide beauty and habitat for native creatures such as butterflies, birds and frogs.

Commissioner Suffredin noted that, "volunteer efforts like this are essential to restoring the forest preserves and can really boost what can be accomplished by limited county resources".

The work day was part of a multi-agency annual event organized locally by the North Branch Restoration Project and Friends of Morton Grove Forest Preserves.   It was organized in recognition of National Public Lands Day which is a national annual effort dedicated to recognizing, advocating for, and working on public lands.   The Miami Woods work day was just one of the designated work sites throughout Cook County.