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Re: riparian vegetation response summary

James   Are you thinking of this book?

Book Review of

 STEVENS, William K.  1995
Miracle Under The Oaks
 Pocket Books / Simon & Schuster.  no index; notes, refs, lists.
 Library call no. 333.7153 S846M

Way back in 1977 Steve Packard invented a non-existent biome along the banks
of the north branch of the Chicago River.  This is the saga of how he then
formulated a political campaign to protect and to re-introduce this biome
and, over the succeeding years, recruited and enthused a following of over
five thousand volunteers from all walks of life to work on returning this
then-vanished eco-system into its present glory.  By 1995 they had put
together a chain of 200 sites covering 30,000 acres.  Altogether an
inspiring example to prairie enthusiasts today.

The biome that he dreamed up is an oak-savannah along the banks of the north
branch of the Chicago River in Illinois, in the northern suburbs of Chicago.
The Nature Conservancy classifies a tree cover of less than 10% as prairie,
10-25% as savannah, 25-65% as woodland (closed savannah), and over 65% as
forest.  In 1977 it was scrubland littered with tires and refrigerators,
infested with exotic plant invaders.  Today those are gone, and it harbors
three kinds of Oak, especially Bur Oak (Quercus macrostachya) and scores of
native plants, many of them rare or uncommon;  it is a warm and friendly
scene, luxuriating in botanical riches

This book has the hallmarks of being hastily written, and minimally edited.
There is no index.  The text is sputtered with the names of plants – in
English only;  an appendix cross-lists their Latin names – but in Latin
alphabetic order.  So how do I find out what the Latin name is for that
English name?  by running my finger down all those six pages until I find
it?  Fie!  Only to find that the Common Reed (page179) is not listed there?
It does list Cinna arundinacea, Common Woodreed, but my bet would be on
Phragmites australis, which is not included.  I have scanned that list on my
computer, and rearranged it in alphabetic order in English;  if you would
like a copy, please let me know

to get this e-mail version properly laid out, Copy it, call up a blank new
page in Word, Paste it in.    geoff

-----Original Message-----
From: James C. Trager <jtrager@ridgway.mobot.org>
To: prairie@mallorn.com <prairie@mallorn.com>
Date: Wednesday, March 24, 1999 4:29 PM
Subject: Re: riparian vegetation response summary


My memory was jogged by Mark MacKay's summary of references on
riparian prairie vegetation. The resoration ecologists at Chicago
Botanic Garden (Glencoe, IL) have been doing a riparian prairie
restoration along a section of the Skokie River that runs thru their
property. Perhaps Jim Steffan, or one of the other staff up there
know of some references after which they model their restoration.
The address is 100 Lake-Cook Rd./Glencoe IL 60022.

James C. Trager
Shaw Arboretum
P.O. Box 38
Gray Summit MO 63039
PH# 314-451-3512
FAX 314-451-5583
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