Wingate Prairie Ecological Restoration and Safety Enhancement Project

As part of the Crystal Lake Park District’s commitment to preserving and restoring the health of our local ecosystem, a contracted tree service company will be carefully removing 90-100 nearly dead pines in the Wingate Prairie Nature Preserve portion of Eastern Veteran Acres Park. The map (attached) depicts the 4 proposed work areas and the estimated number of trees to be removed in each area. The Park District asks park visitors to avoid trails in the mapped area while work is in progress. The contracted tree service plans to begin work on April 22. No good condition or even fair condition trees are proposed for removal as part of this project. This effort will be conducted in consultation with environmental specialists and arborists to ensure minimal disruption to surrounding habitats.

The purpose/goals of the work include the following:
1. Functional Improvement: Remove dead trees that in some cases can fall down on the trail system. These trees are soft wood pines and are likely to come down sooner than later, including some already downed trees. Once they fall, they are likely to stack on each other, creating an obstacle for access to maintain the area.
2. Aesthetic Improvement: Though scattered dead trees can provide good habitat and can be acceptable, these trees within the project area are densely clustered and are unlikely to stay standing for very long due to being softwood species. If trees are allowed to fall into stacks in the understory, they would likely detract from the desired park aesthetic.
3. Ecological Improvement: As mentioned above, scattered dead trees are valuable in a forest/woodland, but dense clusters can present problems. In this case the pines were planted in unnaturally dense rows that tend to shade out anything underneath them and even themselves.

We are at the extreme southern range of naturally occurring northern pine forests and they were not historically a feature of northeast Illinois landscapes. Furthermore, these pines have been row planted in what is remnant dry-mesic gravel prairie. Removing some of these pines as they die will help the natural communities reclaim their historic footprint. Gradual removal of the pine plantations is a listed management objective in the “Updated 5-Year Site Management Plan and Schedule for Wingate Prairie Nature Preserve” developed by the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission. Removing these dead individuals allows some progress on that objective.
For further information or questions regarding this environmental project, contact Preston Skultety, Manager of Natural Resources, pskultety@crystallakeparks.org