Grove Restoration Project

The Bachelors Grove Prairie restoration team will be performing a series of activities on September 19th in order to restore a healthy ecology to one of the central points to what was known as the Batchelder settlement at Bachelors Grove Woods. For those of you who are looking forward to returning to Bachelors Grove cemetery and performing full scale clean-ups by removing weeds and trimming grass this is one event you may not want to miss. The efforts will give you a first hand experience toward new activities coming to Bachelors Grove cemetery and its surrounding area.

An example to some of the volunteering efforts will be the removal of invasive plants and attending approved brush pile burns. This helps to ensure that future growth of misplaced species of plants are properly controlled while allowing other plants that haven’t grown in the area for decades to make a comeback. Trained Master Stewards for the Forest Preserve District will be present and they will show you how easy, entertaining and educational it is to spend a day at Bachelors Grove Prairie. If you thought that keeping the cemetery maintained would be fun just wait until you get a first hand experience as to what will be included in the future for those resting souls! Plus you will be helping to bring back what the area used to look like when the Batchelders first settled here in the early 1800s, so be a part of history and have fun doing it!

Everyone will be meeting in the far east end of the parking lot to Bur Oak Woods on Saturday at 9:00 AM. All volunteers will then be guided to the area near the north side of Bachelors Grove Woods where the burn pile will take place. The entrance to Bur Oak Woods is off of Harlem Avenue, just south of 135th Street. This is a five minute drive from Bachelors Grove cemetery and a map has been provided below to help guide you. The area marked with a red “P” is where everyone will be parking.

All activities are expected to last until 12:00 PM and all necessary equipment and gloves will be provided. You do not need to worry about bringing anything besides some water to drink and wear clothing that is appropriate for the outdoors. If you wish to bring something simple to cook over the fire using a stick, or even bake a potato in tinfoil in the hot embers, feel free to bring it along!

If you have any questions feel free to contact Bill Fath of the Bachelors Grove Prairie at 708-364-0006 and as always you may also contact a coordinator of the Grove Restoration Project through email or by using the Feedback Line and they will be happy to assist you.

The excellent weather during the August clean-up and picnic made events of the day very enjoyable. Early in the morning the garbage can provided by the Forest Preserve District was placed on-site to greet volunteers upon their arrival. Throughout the three hour clean-up volunteers from previous efforts as well as new members of the team spent much of their time conversing on various topics as they removed material from the area. About a dozen bags of garbage and a few large items were collected and placed to the side of the road to be picked up by the Forest Preserve District. Comments by volunteers and general visitors to the area about the lack of garbage to be collected was certainly a positive reflection on how much has been accomplished this year.

At the end of the clean-up a portion of the volunteers relaxed at the picnic across the street in Rubio Woods. Discussions varied throughout the afternoon as everyone sat back to grab a drink and get something to eat. Some reflected on their early experiences of the area more than two decades ago as well as received a chance to browse through some of the artifacts recovered from the area such as a horseshoe from the horses used by early settlers, to a purple-hue milk bottle in excellent condition dated between 1910 and 1920. Other items present were the top portion of an 1800s handheld lantern, some recently discovered documentation about the old house that used to stand near the roped off entrance in 1939, and even one of the original doorknobs to one of the houses that stood in the 1800s just west of the cemetery.

Bill Fath from the Bachelors Grove Prairie restoration team also made a appearance to the picnic as well. He gave a brief introduction to the efforts currently in effect to restoring ecology to one of the central points to what was the Batchelors Grove settlement. Restoring ecology to the area has many benefits and it will also help reflect what the area used to look like when the Batchelder family first settled here in the early part of the 1800s.

Photographs of the clean-up provided by volunteer photographer Pam Bednarz can be found in the Gallery. If you also wish to become a volunteer photographer to help document the hard work performed by other volunteers we welcome you to email a coordinator to be notified of future events. As always, we appreciate everyone coming out to help take care of the area and we hope you all had a great time at the picnic!

A permit to help clean up the cemetery has been issued for Sunday, August 23rd 2009 from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM. The clean-up itself will be from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM and a volunteer picnic will take place across the street at the Rubio Woods Forest Preserve from 12:00 PM to 3:00 PM. Details of the picnic will be sent to all volunteers as the date approaches.

The main areas of attention will be the cemetery itself, portions of the pond and the main path leading to the cemetery. Portions of the creek that runs along side the cemetery and pond is scheduled as well just so long as the water level remains low on the 23rd. All volunteers should initially meet in the cemetery. Upon leaving for the picnic the main path will be attended to along the way.

The permit was granted solely for the purpose of a clean-up that will only consist of removing the trash that has been left behind by visitors to the cemetery. At this point in time all permits that require the use of cutting tools are still on-hold. The only items you should bring are a pair of gloves, a few garbage bags, bug spray and possibly a pick-up stick if you have one. If you plan on helping with the pond or creek a pair of boots may be helpful. If you happen to have a wheel barrow feel free to bring that along as well. Any other tools that may be required will be provided on-site.

The Forest Preserve District has approved the placement of a garbage can that will be provided by the District itself. It will be placed at the cemetery by the GRP for daily visitation to the area. This is certainly another step in the right direction to the upkeep of the area. Visitors may have noticed a garbage can in the past, which was removed during the clean-up of fallen trees by the District, but the can was not approved by the District so that is why it disappeared. If you have not been to a clean-up before now may be a fun time to make a visit to take part in its first official placement. As for a update to the garbage dumpster that was recommended by the District, it was decided not to be temporarily placed on site at this point in time.

The turn out for the July 26th clean-up was another success. There were many new volunteers who came out for the first time to express their concerns for the care and maintenance of the cemetery. During the first hour the cemetery itself was taken care of and then the efforts were focused on the house foundation located near the entrance to the main path leading to the cemetery. The majority of the material removed from the area was broken glass which resulted in a total of 47 bags of garbage.

Bill and Marybeth Fath of the Bachelors Grove Prairie (BGP) restoration team (stewards for the Forest Preserve District) also made a visit to the clean-up and to help mentor in the future care of the area. As always, their assistance is very much appreciated! If you happen to be visiting The Taste of Orland on July 31st, August 1st or the 2nd be sure to stop by their booth to say hello. They will be assisting the Orland Grassland volunteers, which happens to be one of the largest areas under restoration for the Forest Preserve District. It is a wonderful area to visit and if you are an avid birdwatcher it is an excellent grassland to spend some time in.

As for the wildlife out at the cemetery, be sure to keep an eye out for the two new turtles that have made themselves at home in the pond. Their protective shells are about a foot long but they can still be hard to spot, just keep looking. Among some of the other wildlife spotted out near the pond this year is another baby muskrat, a few large Bass and a bunch of Sunfish and Bluegills. During the clean-up itself a very hard to find “Stick-Bug” in the Phasmatodea family was spotted and a photograph of it can be found in the Gallery.

A big thank you goes out to all of the volunteers who showed up, especially those who drove almost two hours to help out! Your assistance is truly appreciate by helping make such excellent changes to Bachelors Grove cemetery and its surrounding area. Great teamwork everyone!

There was a meeting today (July 22nd) for Stewardship training within the Forest Preserve District of Cook County. There was also a discussion about the cemetery and what the District’s intentions are concerning its condition. At the moment the Forest Preserve District is not in direct control of the cemetery due to the transfer of ownership still pending. The FPD is not sure as to what will be happening as far as the upkeep of the cemetery but they also stated that they will continue to fully support the Grove Restoration Project and its volunteers in maintaining the area.

What this means is that there is still a fair amount of time until more progress is made toward going in again and maintaining the weeds and other such activities. A representative of the FPD stated that there could be a time slot available in September for the GRP to meet with other officials of Cook County in order to evaluate the cemetery and its surrounding area to discuss a site plan.

As stated above the meeting was for Stewardship training and a GRP coordinator is attending the training in order to obtain Master Stewardship status. This will help the GRP move forward in helping to outline an official site plan and conduct the many positive changes to the area as a result.

A permit to help clean up the cemetery has been issued for Sunday, July 26th 2009 from 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM. The permit was granted solely for the purpose of a clean-up that will only consist of removing the trash that has been left behind by visitors to the cemetery. At this point in time all permits that require the use of cutting tools are still on-hold. Please do not bring any other items besides those recommended below.

The main area of attention will be the last clean-up location where there used to be a house along the main path leading to the cemetery. The photograph below shows the location of the site marked as H1.

The only items you should bring are a pair of gloves, a few garbage bags, rake and bug spray. If you happen to have a wheel barrow please feel free to bring it along. But again, please don’t bring any other items.

The Forest Preserve District will be providing garbage bags and gloves but you may wish to provide your own gloves for more comfort. Also, on the last clean-up all of the garbage bags provided by the Forest Preserve District were used up so it won’t hurt to bring a few extra just in case.

At this point in time the Forest Preserve District has filed a request for a garbage dumpster to be located out near the cemetery to help with the efforts. Based on availability, it is unclear if it will be placed on-site for the July 26th clean-up. We will keep you updated on the results of the request.

The turn out for the June 27th clean-up was another success. Most of the attention was on the house foundation located near the roped off entrance to the main path leading to the cemetery. Over 25 bags of garbage were collected and most of the large items have been removed from this particular area. More work is needed but all of the volunteers did an excellent job and a lot of progress has been made! The location is starting to look better than it has in probably 70 years based on the age of the material found so far. You should be very proud of yourselves!

The cemetery itself remained fairly clean from the May 2nd event and visitors have been using the garbage bags placed at the main gate so it has made a huge difference in the efforts. A big thank you goes out to those of you using the bags to properly dispose of your material and to the visitors that help dispose of the full bags when the GRP is not on site! It certainly allows the volunteers to focus more of their time in other areas that need attention and of course it is simply a joy not to see a bunch of junk everywhere. Good work!

A few photographs were captured during the event and can be found in the 2009 Gallery. There are more clean-ups being scheduled for next month and we look forward to seeing you all there!