10 Coyote Facts from a Cook County Forest Preserve Expert

Why there are more songbirds in coyote-heavy areas, what to do if you see one of the scruffy creatures in your yard and more.

There's no denying that coyotes are living among us. Patch readers confirmed this with the numerous sightings cataloged on our coyote map. The Save the Prairie Society invited local coyote expert Melina Peters to speak at its meeting Sunday at the La Grange Park Library on the topic "Adapting to the Rising Coyote Population in the Chicago Region." Peters worked as a naturalist at the Little Red Schoolhouse in Willow Springs for the past five years and starts her new position this week as a wildlife technician with the forest preserve, focusing specifically on coyotes. Here are 10 facts about the wily beasts from Peters' talk: Earlier: Coyote Map: Where have you seen them around La Grange? - - - - - - - - - -  There are plenty of ways to …

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What Was That Smoke Plume to the South on Sunday?

Answer: a controlled burn in the Cook County Forest Preserve along La Grange Road.

If following the Chicago Bears' 51-20 shellacking of the Tennessee Titans on Sunday, you happened to wander outside of a home in the La Grange/Western Springs area and looked to the south, you might have noticed a massive plume of smoke rising high into the afternoon sky not too far away. We noticed, too—so we went and had a look. Turned out there was a predicated controlled burn being conducted by the Cook County Forest Preserve in the area around Suttonbush Slough, west of La Grange Road and south of 95th Street. (The area is also called Pulaski Woods and the Cranberry Slough Nature Preserve, and is part of the Paw Paw Woods Nature Preseve, according to Google Maps.) The flames were actually really impressive; the burn came all the way …

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Camping in Cook County Forests: What Do You Think?

Cook County Forest Preserve District wants to greatly expand camping. Read the details, and register your views in public hearings on Wednesday and Thursday, or send your comments by email.

How would you like to go camping without the long drive to get there?  The Forest Preserve District of Cook County has drafted a plan to greatly expand camping facilities, including renovating and constructing cabins, bunkhouses and a lodge, a new Camp Pine Woods in Northbrook along the Des Plaines River, and more. It would also expand camping to adults and families; currently only organized youth groups, such as Scouts, can use the three overnight camps. Read the draft plan, which is in a conceptual stage, here. Then make your comments to Forest Preserve District officials Wednesday and Thursday at these times and locations (The plan will be finalized in October after public comments are heard, the FPDCC noted): If you can't make the …

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Matthew Hendrickson

12:27 am on Friday, August 24, 2012

Thanks Erik! Sounds like the "primitive" campgrounds might be good ones to avoid then.   more ›

Volunteers Pull 20 Bags of Trash From Salt Creek's Woods

About 60 locals took to the woods north of Western Springs and La Grange to make the Cook County Forest Preserve a good deal less grungy.