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Maine East nature preserve tours to benefit restoration effort
Updated: July 29, 2012 4:35PM
The Maine East High School Ecology Club will host a fundraiser for its Oak Savanna restoration project from 7-9 p.m. July 3 before the fireworks show.
Ecology Club members will lead tours through the 1-acre nature preserve at Dempster Street and Dee Road in Park Ridge.
Tour leaders will walk the trail and introduce visitors to a Google-map plant-identification guide for use via cell phone or iPad. They will also introduce children to the habitat, which is being restored for a variety of native-Illinois and migratory animals.
No fee will be charged for the tours but donations are welcome to help the Ecology Club’s restoration efforts.
Future plans include fundraising efforts to help advance the project and install a new fence, path, trail signs and a deck with seating around the pond.
The group has completed the first step in a series of landscaping restoration efforts, including the elimination of European Buckthorn, an invasive shrub affecting Chicago-area forest preserves.
