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Trailside Museum of Natural HistoryLiving with Wildlife at Urban Conservation Area Near Chicago
The Trailside Museum of Natural History in River Forest, Illinois is a nature education center within the Forest Preserve District of Cook County.
For sixty-five years Chicagoland families brought wild animals to the Trailside Museum for rehabilitation and subsequent release back into the wild again. Often the building was overcrowded with baby rabbits, raccoons, possum and squirrels. Well-intentioned residents brought their children's neglected turtles and Easter chickens and ducks as well. Caring for the animals consumed the time and energy of staff and volunteers. Educating the public on ecological principles and natural systems took a back seat to rehabilitation until recently. Current Mission is Environmental EducationIn 2006 the mission of educating residents and visitors of Cook County, an urban conservation area including Chicago and its suburbs, has been the central focus. Rehabilitation has ceased. Now staff advise the public on best practices for living with wildlife, improving wildlife habitat, and restoring natural ecosystems. Education Program for Illinois Natural HistoryThe education program is multifaceted. The museum building houses natural history exhibits for self-guided or instructor-led tours. Bird nests, mammal skulls, an aquarium with local fish, terraria for a box turtle, black rat snake, and American toad, and cages housing a talkative black crow and injured robin catch the attention of adults and children. Walls of the museum exhibit attractive posters of Illinois reptiles, frogs and toads, autumn leaves, summer wildflowers and grasses, moths and butterflies, the monarch life cycle, and a food chain. Teachers are able to jot down poster names and procurement sources for their own classroom use. Staff naturalists conduct indoor and outdoor classes for schools, scouts, families, park districts, and community groups. Off-site outreach programs are given on request. Among the monthly classes offered free to the public are morning fitness hikes, children's nature story time, the garden as an ecosystem, parent and child woodland walks, and bats at night. Grounds Feature Native Plants and Birds of IllinoisThe grounds surrounding the museum are one small part of the largest urban conservation preserve in the nation encompassing 68,000 acres. Over the years alien plants encroached upon the forest. Today efforts are underway to replace the invasive with native species. A demonstration Illinois wildflower plot in front of the museum gives homeowners ideas for colorful natives to introduce into the home landscape: wild columbine, nodding onion, cardinal flower, great blue lobelia, Jacob's ladder, prairie smoke, and dotted mint. Among the oak woodland beside the museum is a series of outdoor zoolike cages containing live native animals with injuries or disabilities preventing them from returning safely to the wild: a turkey vulture, red-tailed hawk, American kestral, great-horned owl, coyote and red fox. Informative signage on habitat, diet, and predator-prey relationships accompanies each animal. Footpath trails lead to the nearby DesPlaines River where parent and child fishing classes and a children's fish camp are offered periodically. CalendarThe Trailside Museum is open 362 days a year, 7 days a week. For information or reservations call 708-366-6530 between 8:00a.m. and 4:00p.m. CDT.
The copyright of the article Trailside Museum of Natural History in Environmental Organizations is owned by Arlene Marturano. Permission to republish Trailside Museum of Natural History in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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