Lyons Woods 1

Back to the tour-

Our next stop was a smaller preserve on the north side of Waukegan, a little 272-acre block of trees and grasslands called Lyons Woods. This was one of the few that was nearly all under trees, so it ranks pretty high on my list of favorites last summer.

The evergreens that grow here were planted in the 1940s as part of a nursery, and most of the other larger trees were also planted by the Pavliks to create this wonderful forested natural area, full of birds, butterflies and flowers.

I noticed here, as in much of the other preserves we’d been to, that there seemed to be a lot of trees with the tops snapped off. The year before, almost exactly from this walk, we had a large fast-moving storm that knocked power out for nearly a week in some places, and took down trees everywhere. Some parks were closed because of the damage. We didn’t have power for almost exactly 72 hours ourselves, but that’s a different post!

Now, though, when I see a lot of trees down, and mostly falling the same direction (to the east), I just wonder if they came down during that storm!

But with the death of one, comes life for another!

I just loved that this little seedling was starting in the stump! $

To be continued…