Glossary:

• Wolf Road Prairie State Nature Preserve - the largest and highest quality plot of remnant, tall-grass wet black prairie on this side of the Mississippi. One of three State Nature Preserves along Wolf Road, the highest environmental protection that the state can bestow.

• Ecosystem - the interactions of all living and nonliving things in a given community or area. Everywhere is an ecosystem.

• Ecology - the study of ecosystems, which includes aspects of geology, hydrology/hydraulics, climatology, biology, and more.

• Exotic - a species that is not from the area in which it lives.

• Native - a species that is from the area in which it lives.

• Invasive - a species that, when displaced from the context in which it evolved, destroys and displaces other populations in a new ecosystem.

• Ruderal - an environment in which the natural soil structures and water regimes have been removed or wasted entirely.

• Water Regime - the prevailing pattern of waterflow given a certain place and time.

• Green Infrastructure - ecosystems which facilitate services essential to life and society, such as water processing. Ex. a bioswale or detention pond.

• Grey Infrastructure - artificial means of facilitating services essential to life and society. Ex. a wastewater plant or stormwater system.

• Disturbance - events that put stress on a certain aspect of an ecosystem and thus help to define and create that ecosystem, such as fires, floods, windthrow, frost, and cultivation/exploitation.

• Succession - the processes by which an area transitions from one ecosystem-type to another. All ecosystems constantly undergo succession, with some ecosystems being much more stable and long-lasting than others. 'Stable' succession tends to fluctuate within a range called 'Dynamic Equilibrium'.

• Dynamic Equilibrium - a range of fluctuation within which an ecosystem predictably transitions back-and-forth. For example, the dynamic equilibrium of an Oak Savanna may change from less trees and drier weather to more trees and wetter weather, multiple times over a given period.

• Co-evolve - when multiple species evolve in the same area, in response to the same disturbances, and control each other’s populations by competition or collaboration/symbiosis.

• Systemic (herbicide) - an herbicide that, once introduced to a plant’s vascular system, travels throughout the entire plant - and not beyond it.

• Monoculture - an ecosystem that is dominated by one single species.

• Bioswale - a form of man-made green infrastructure used to clean stormwater and mitigate flooding.

• Remnant - describes an ecosystem that has remained in its natural state since pre-industrial times.

• Emulated - describes an ecosystem that is created by humans, meant to perform the same functions as a remnant ecosystem.

• Annual - a plant whose entire life cycle occurs in one growing season.

• Biennial - a plant whose entire life cycle occurs in two growing seasons, flowering and fruiting in the second year.

• Perennial - a plant that regrows from a rootstock every growing season, flowering and fruiting multiple times.

• Monocarpic - a perennial that regrows from a rootstock every growing season, but dies after flowering and fruiting once.

Links to help you restore your ecosystem:

• Wild Ones Handbook: Landscaping With Native Plants (.pdf): https://archive.epa.gov/greenacres/web/pdf/wo_2004b.pdf

• Chicago Wilderness Atlas of Biodiversity (1999) - a breakdown of Chicagoland ecology and history (.pdf): https://www.csu.edu/cerc/researchreports/documents/ChicagoWildernessAtlasOfBiodiversity1999.pdf

• Chicago Wilderness Resources Page (including updated 2011 version of Atlas of Biodiversity): https://www.chicagowilderness.org/page/publications

• Introduction to native-plant landscaping (Chicago Botanic Garden): https://www.chicagobotanic.org/plantinfo/landscaping_native_plants

• Plant care fact sheets for Chicagoland: https://www.chicagobotanic.org/plantinfo/factsheets

• Prairie Moon - Trusted native plant store: https://www.prairiemoon.com/

• Guide to good native shrubs and hedges: https://chicagorti.org/healthy-hedges

• Native plant gardening for birds: https://www.chicagoaudubon.org/native-plant-gardening-birds

• How to turn degraded grassland/lawn into prairie: https://www.inhs.illinois.edu/animals-plants/prairie/tallgrass/restoration/

• Chicago Botanic Garden invasive species list (updated frequently - with alternative native suggestions for each plant): https://www.chicagobotanic.org/research/invasive_species

• Field Museum Field Guides (hundreds of free field guides to native organisms around the world): https://fieldguides.fieldmuseum.org/

• Wild Ones webinars (an organization dedicated to advocating for native plant gardening and green infrastructure): https://wildones.org/webinars/