On a quiet morning at Wolf Road Prairie in Westchester, a group of volunteers fans out across the tallgrass, paper bags in hand. Their task is simple, but essential: collect native seeds to help restore and expand this gem of Illinois prairie.
“It’s such a rare remnant of what used to be a large part of the state—one-hundredth of one percent of the original prairie in Illinois remains. And this is a significant part of it,” says volunteer Don Cronin. “Nature, to me, is the place to go. It’s very rejuvenating.”
Across the Forest Preserves of Cook County, seed collecting is a seasonal process that requires patience, knowledge and coordination. Volunteers look for ripened seeds, gather them carefully and then process and store them. Later, they often return them to the land to grow new plants.
“We understand seeds are everything,” says volunteer site steward Mary Zaander. “They’re the base for restoration work. Even here, at Wolf Road Prairie, there are places that don’t have the diversity of our higher quality spots.”
Mary has been volunteering in prairie restoration since 1989. “I have a lot of experience, but I’m learning all the time,” says Zaander. “There’s so much nuance to it.”
Volunteers plan in conjunction with Forest Preserves staff, with site-specific restrictions and careful ecological planning. “Wolf Road Prairie is an Illinois nature preserve, so no seed should really be coming in that’s not from the site,” explains Molly Marz, the Preserves’ Seed Amplification Program manager. “So everything they collect they’re just moving around, either trying to extend populations or put species in other parts of the site.”
For volunteers, seed collecting is not tedious—it’s meaningful. “It’s extremely important. It’s very, very important to get the native species and to get them into the places where they belong,” says Zaander. “We’re trying to increase those [species] so that they are more common.”
When asked what she’d say to someone considering volunteering, Zaander doesn’t hesitate. “We need you. And you can make a difference. You can definitely make a difference here. And you get to work with a great group of people and to learn about the prairie, a very beautiful place.”
It’s important to note that it’s illegal for the public to remove seeds or any plant material from any Cook County forest preserve. Seeds are only collected as part of officially approved stewardship activities, and are carefully selected so as not to impact plant populations.
To find a seed collecting opportunity, visit fpdcc.com/volunteer/ecological-stewardship-workdays/.