Wild Things 2019: Full Schedule

12:30pm CST

Environmental Protection Through Stand-up Comedy

How can we make composting interesting to those that go to a supermarket more than a farmer’s market? Pesticide reduction to those that want a weed-free, green lawn? Two environmental professionals tried stand-up comedy to share their technical work with the public during Science Riot, a workshop that teaches the art of comedy to scientists. Both will perform their routines for this session.

NOTE: Lunch Session times and durations may change. Please check back before conference day to confirm.

Presenters

Ryan Anderson

Midwest Pesticide Action Center

Nick Lucas

Advocates for Urban Agriculture

Saturday February 23, 2019 12:30pm - 1:15pm CST
rms. 33, 34

Lunch Session, L1

Track Advocacy and Environmental Justice

12:30pm CST

Evidence-based hope for the future: The human population bottleneck & conservation reserves as re-wilding centers

We live in an era of rapid human population growth. However, demographics suggest that population growth will not only slow in the coming century but will actually reverse! For uplifting reasons (like empowerment of women) the human population will likely be smaller than it is today in only a few hundred years. The conservation reserves of today will serve as the re-wilding centers of the future.

NOTE: Lunch Session times and durations may change. Please check back before conference day to confirm.

Presenters

Ray Dybzinski

Loyola University Chicago, Institute of Environmental Sustainability

Saturday February 23, 2019 12:30pm - 1:15pm CST
rm. 22

Lunch Session, L13

Track Sustainability

12:30pm CST

From a Cup to the Community: How Monarch Butterflies Have Migrated Into the Hearts of Chicago Families

In this storytelling session, we’ll share what families are doing to take care of monarchs in their own neighborhoods, after leaving the nature center with a caterpillar in a cup. Creating a ripple effect of monarch mania in the community, these families are metamorphosing hearts and homes. Easy and low-cost/free how-to ideas of raising monarchs will also be shared.

NOTE: Lunch Session times and durations may change. Please check back before conference day to confirm.

Presenters

Liza Fischel

Chicago Park District, North Park Village Nature Center

Sean Shaffer

Naturalist, Chicago Park District

Saturday February 23, 2019 12:30pm - 1:15pm CST
rm. 49

Lunch Session, L6

Track Community Engagement

12:30pm CST

Hackmatack NWR - Case Study

Hackmatack NWR, has core habitats large enough to provide secure nesting habitat for area-dependent birds and wildlife corridors. Large natural areas will be critical support of viable populations of wildlife and vegetation. It can also assist in the moderation of extreme weather events and mitigation planning, while providing critical green infrastructure and nature-based adaptation support.

Presenters

Steven Byers

Friends of Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge

Vince Mosca

Senior Ecologist, Friends of Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge

Saturday February 23, 2019 12:30pm - 1:15pm CST
rm. 48

Lunch Session, L11

Track Community Engagement

12:30pm CST

Interpreting Nature through Song

Music is a powerful and engaging teacher. Wrapping an environmental message in an engaging melody helps get the point across without sounding “preachy”. Hear a variety of songs from "Buckthorn Betsy" to "Oaks and Prairies" about loving and protecting our natural world, and maybe join the chorus of a few.

NOTE: Lunch Session times and durations may change. Please check back before conference day to confirm.

Presenters

Diane Greening

Master Naturalist

I'm a volunteer with a number of local organizations including the Chicago Botanic Garden, Lake Co. Forest Preserves, the Univ. of Illinois Extension Master Naturalists, Citizens for Conservation, and the Friends of the Green Bay Trail. I'm also a singer-songwriter with a new album... Read More →

Saturday February 23, 2019 12:30pm - 1:15pm CST
rm. 51

Lunch Session, L4

12:30pm CST

Lessons of Past and Future

Speakers will share their cutting-edge research (prairie cemeteries as repositories of native flora, GIS and historical distribution of species, and prairie restoration in challenging areas) and the implications to urban ecosystems with an emphasis on issues of Chicago-area concern.

Presenters

Elwood Dumke

M.S. student in NRES, UIUC

Renee Gracon

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Natural Resources & Environmental Sciences

Stacey Libra

Landscape Architect/Ecological Designer, Applied Ecological Services

Saturday February 23, 2019 12:30pm - 1:15pm CST
rm. 44

Lunch Session, L12

Track Ecological Restoration and Land Management

12:30pm CST

Many Hands Make Light Work: A Zone Concept for Habitat Restoration Projects

Volunteers at Somme Woods developed an innovative plan to involve more people in planning and stewardship of the site. The 255 acres of Somme Woods have been divided into 14 zones, averaging about 20 acres each. Each zone is primarily managed by a zone steward in coordination with the site steward.

Somme Woods has been operating under the Zone Stewardship concept for three years. A practice of shared ideas and information provides each Zone Steward a better understanding of the site's ecological and restoration goals. Other sites might benefit from this approach.

A group presentation including an overview, group exercise, discussion, and summary.

NOTE: Lunch Session times and durations may change. Please check back before conference day to confirm.

Presenters

Matthew Bucher

Zone Steward, Somme Preserves

Matthew Evans

Zone Steward, Somme Woods

volunteer and conservation graduate student

James Hensel

Zone Steward, Somme Woods

Micro steward concept and building a community of volunteers.

Peter Kim

Sawyer, Somme Woods

Eriko Kojima

Volunteer steward

Life is beautiful and each day is a precious gift I accept with gratitude. I strive to live it with humility, a sense of humor and detachment. Towards all who cross my path I offer love, kindness and positivity. I dedicate each day to serve the earth and its creatures. Let's do it... Read More →

Linda Masters

Site Steward, Somme Woods

John McMartin

Sawyer, Somme Woods

Stephen Packard

Site Steward, Somme Preserves

Stephanie Place

Zone Steward, Somme Woods

Sai Ramakrishna

Zone Steward, Somme Woods

Russell Sala

trails and bridges, Somme Woods

Paul Swanson

Zone Steward, Somme Woods

Saturday February 23, 2019 12:30pm - 1:15pm CST
rm. 21

Lunch Session

Track Ecological Restoration and Land Management

12:30pm CST

Music and Nature: Facilitating a Nature Jam

This session aims to provide ideas to the audience about ways they can utilize the music as an anchoring practice to root young people in the sights, sounds, and wonder of nature. We will explore the use of invasive plant species to create instruments and music with children. The talk will culminate in a nature jam where participants can use their instruments in a jam or create music inspired by nature.

NOTE: Lunch Session times and durations may change. Please check back before conference day to confirm.

Presenters

Adam Kessel

Naturalist and Musician, Forest Preserves of Cook County

Adam Kessel works as a Naturalist with the Cook County Forest Preserves at Trailside Museum in River Forest. At Trailside, his music education programs integrate music performance into nature based programming ranging from nature jams to instrument building from invasive species... Read More →

Saturday February 23, 2019 12:30pm - 1:15pm CST
rms. 40, 41

Lunch Session, L2

12:30pm CST

One Earth Film Mini-Fest: Media for Conservation and Social Change

Enjoy a preview of the One Earth Film Festival, the Midwest’s premiere environmental film festival, slated for March 1-10. Watch an 8-minute film inspired by a Springfield, Illinois, youngster’s first visit to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. Joseph Goldstein recalls being awestruck by “the waters, the fishing, the stars, the silence.” At 13, a leukemia diagnosis put all adventuring on hold, but he “made a wish” to save the Boundary Waters from the threat of a sulfide ore copper mine on its border. That wish became his mission to teach America's youth how to cherish and advocate for nature. After the film, Ana Garcia Doyle, One Earth Film Festival director, will lead you through a lively discussion of the film and its lessons for our own natural areas here in Illinois.

Presenters

Ana Garcia Doyle

Director, One Earth Film Festival

Using art (especially film) for environmental and social change. Our work at One Earth Film Fest (oneearthfilmfest.org) is focused on this.

Saturday February 23, 2019 12:30pm - 1:15pm CST
rms. 54, 56, 58

Lunch Session

12:30pm CST

Plant Love Stories LIVE@Wild Things

Plant Love Stories are stories about plants that have a special place in our lives - we believe that everyone has a plant love story. This session will begin with an introduction to the Plant Love Stories website. The main event will be a series of speakers telling 3-5 minute plant love stories. At the end there will be an opportunity for audience members to tell their stories.

NOTE: Lunch Session times and durations may change. Please check back before conference day to confirm.

Presenters

Mallika Nocco

Rebecca Barak

Chicago Botanic Garden

Saturday February 23, 2019 12:30pm - 1:15pm CST
rms. 52, 53

Lunch Session, L7

Track Community Engagement

12:30pm CST

Prairie Reverie: What Does the Word Prairie Mean in Post-prairie Illinois?

The word prairie is often used generically for farmland or other open space, or evocatively, as in the names of subdivisions, businesses, schools, etc. This thoughtful, but humorous, presentation is a meditation on the loss of Illinois prairie land and lessons for people involved in prairie conservation.

NOTE: Lunch Session times and durations may change. Please check back before conference day to confirm.

Presenters

Jack Shouba

Saturday February 23, 2019 12:30pm - 1:15pm CST
rm. 45

Lunch Session, L3

12:30pm CST

Telling The Conservation Story - Best Practices In Traditional and Social Media

Telling the Conservation Story - A panel of public affairs and outreach specialists will host an interactive discussion about best practices in traditional and social media and new approaches to public engagement. What has worked well? How and why? Audience participation is encouraged.

NOTE: Lunch Session times and durations may change. Please check back before conference day to confirm.

Presenters

Stacina Stagner

Communications Manager, The Forest Preserves of Cook County

Gelasia Croom

Associate Director Of Communications, The Nature Conservancy in Illinois

Brandon Hayes

Director of Communications, Openlands

Brandon Hayes has spent his entire career in nonprofit communications. Before Openlands, he was at the youth arts education organization, Marwen, and was a publicist for Goodman Theatre. Additionally, he is a photographer and essayist, chronicling all fifty-nine US National Parks... Read More →

Vera Leopold

Grants Manager & Development Associate, The Wetlands Initiative

Saturday February 23, 2019 12:30pm - 1:15pm CST
rm. 46

Lunch Session, L9

Track Community Engagement

12:30pm CST

The Epic of the Chicago Bioregion

Enter into the 13.7 billion year story of this bioregion, with all its creativity, drama, beauty and survival. Led by the voices of science and wisdom, this performance will include audience participation.

NOTE: Lunch Session times and durations may change. Please check back before conference day to confirm.

Presenters

Jacob Speer

Small Waters Education

Saturday February 23, 2019 12:30pm - 1:15pm CST
rm. 47

Lunch Session, L5

12:30pm CST

Vibrant Communities—People & Nature; A Listening and Engagement Session

Chicago Wilderness, a diverse alliance of close to 200 members, envisions a vibrant region where people and nature thrive together. This ‘listening session’ and guided discussion will help shape the future direction of CW. Share your voice and ideas for what CW can do and be.

NOTE: Lunch Session times and durations may change. Please check back before conference day to confirm.

Presenters

Lunch Session, L8

Track Community Engagement