Many local organizations offer classes that are wonderful opportunities for habitat restoration volunteers and citizen scientists. With these classes you can take on your own projects and lead others in the preserve you love.
Here are some places to check for upcoming classes:
- Chicago Botanic Garden – Adult Education
- Chicago Botanic Garden – Citizen Science Academy
- Chicago Botanic Garden – Plants of Concern
- Forest Preserve District of Cook County – Programs and Classes
- Morton Arboretum – Natural Areas Conservation Training
- Morton Arboretum – Learn & Experience
- Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum – Calling Frog Survey
- The Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods – Upcoming Programs
- University of Illinois Extension – Master Naturalist Program
It’s a ginormous help to stewards and the community as a whole when volunteers can manage the brush pile and lead groups collecting seeds. Plus a baby salamander gets its spots every time a new workday leader is certified! To become a Forest Preserve of Cook County workday leader, you need the following classes: Brush Pile Building and Burning, Managing Invasives, and Group Leadership.
You can be the hero out there in the woods and prairies with a clipboard as you track a population of an endangered plant with the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Plants of Concern program or listen for frog calls at a preserve as a frog monitor.
Classroom settings aren’t your jam? Don’t worry, you got this! Your instructors and classmates will be friendly nature lovers like you, and the material is manageable and applicable to the work we do in the field. Most classes are free too.