Thank You, Stacey Salman

 By Connie Schmidt 

Stacey Salman is stepping down from the River Prairie Group Executive Committee, but she is definitely not leaving her work with the Sierra Club. National Sierra Club employs Stacey now, and she is a previous employee for Illinois Chapter. We are not totally saying good-bye to Stacey, she is just changing her role and, frankly, making space for valued new members on our executive committee. She promises to continue to be a dedicated volunteer for both chapter and our group activities. I recently interviewed her and had the following conversation.

How are you doing? Well, I am very grateful that I love my job. I currently work for Sierra Club National in the Office of Chapter Support. It is a great opportunity to influence change, to support Chapter capacities, and to advocate for equitable resources for local entities. Since COVID and the changes in the way we work, I genuinely miss all my colleagues and Sierra Club friends, but like the rest of the world, we are learning to utilize technology and continue to be very engaged. The most rewarding part of my job is being able to amplify local voices and success stories. It feels rewarding to tell the stories of Chapter strengths and grassroots power. Helping to shift to more authentically centered local power building through resource allocation and decision making is definitely rewarding.

How did you first engage with SC?  I have always cared about nature and the environment, and wanted to make a difference. As a grammar school student, I remember organizing friends to talk to the principal about the frog pond at our school. Fast forward to 2008, I was in Springfield for Lobby Day with another organization. I was partnered with Linda Sullivan from the RPG and I was super impressed with how organized the Sierra Club folks were and their process. It was powerful to see that the elected officials actually wanted to talk with SC volunteers, and I could see the political muscle that SC was garnering. I knew that this was a way to make a difference and to have my voice heard.

Tell me about your journey as you became more involved. Following Lobby Day, I went to a new members meeting.  Linda was there, and she had me stand up to thank me for getting involved. Everyone was very welcoming. Lonnie Morris talked about the Cool Cities program where sustainable practices and greenhouse gas reduction was advocated for in communities. I was excited to talk about how we could address climate change in my own village. I eventually ended up on the Environmental Concerned Commission trying to make a difference from within the city of Downers Grove. In addition, Linda invited me to lobby in-district, and she quickly recruited me to work as a leader with the RPG political program. I began to realize that I was becoming an organizer, without ever planning to enter that role. 

I was doing a lot of volunteer work, and I remembered advice I had been given that the key to happiness is to do what you love for work. I decided to take my passion for environmental advocacy into a profession and knew I needed some credentials to be hired in this field. So, with the encouragement of dear friends and a lot of hard work, I got my master’s degree in public policy at Northwestern. I’m grateful and so very happy to be now living my dream, working in the spaces I feel are so important for creating the future we all want.

What are you doing now? I’m a Senior Coordinator with the Office of Chapter Support, and that feels like a perfect fit for me. Because I came up as a group volunteer and a chapter employee, I know how very important the work is at the chapter level. I love raising concerns for chapters and speaking on their behalf at the national level.

I am also a Sierra Club National Unit representative for the Progressive Workers Union. This role also gives me an opportunity to support the working conditions and benefits for our staff and colleagues in grassroots environmental advocacy. It feels as though we are in a moment of transformation within the organization, our country, and the world.  There is uncertainty, it is uncomfortable, but it is great to be part of the solution. 

We will miss Stacey at out Ex-Com meetings but we are oh so glad she is a champion voice for Groups and Chapters with National.  Thank you, Stacey!

 

Clean Energy Jobs Act; Here we go again!

By Connie Schmidt

On February 9, 2021, the Clean Energy Jobs Act was re-introduced in Springfield by the same marvelous co-sponsor we have had for the last two years, IL State Senator Cristina Castro.  State Rep. Ann Williams, House sponsor of CEJA and chair of the House Energy & Environment Committee said, “The days of the big utility companies meeting in back rooms to shape energy policy to benefit their bottom lines are over. CEJA is a product of the most grassroots-intensive energy policy development effort in the history of Illinois. It was put together after over 100 ‘Listen. Lead. Share.’ community meetings were held across the state. As a result of this grassroots effort, the bill addresses head on the issues most important to communities: it tackles climate change, creates equitable jobs in every part of Illinois, and holds utilities accountable. This is what the people of Illinois want, and we’re working to make it happen on behalf of all Illinois communities.”

There was an amazing on-line presence with tweets, Facebook, and Instagram all focused on the hash tag #CEJACantWait. Members of the Sierra Club IL Chapter and groups from all over the state will lobby our elected officials in Springfield to pass CEJA this spring. You can help, by e-mailing your state representative, senator, and the governor. In addition, we are making calls to the governor’s office every Thursday. To get on the reminder list for calling the governor, please send Jeff Gahris jgahris@gmail.com an e-mail and he will sign you up.  

Advocates for CEJA from across the state sent in video footage of why this bill means so much to them.  A wonderful 5-minute video was assembled that definitely shows why CEJA Can’t Wait and needs to pass this spring. I hope you enjoy it, too. Click here to be directed to Facebook for the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition and enjoy the brief film.  https://www.facebook.com/ILCleanJobs/posts/2742921335971181

Janice Guider brings experience and expertise to RPG ExCom

 By Linda Sullivan

Janice Guider says she was inspired to become more involved in public service by the 2019 death of the great civil rights leader and long-time Maryland Congressman Elijah Cummings. Cummings’ death motivated her to become active in the NAACP serving DuPage, Kane, Will, and NW Cook Counties. There she put her long-time interest in healthcare to good use. She joined the NAACP’s Health Committee, taking it from an essentially dormant status to a committee with eight people. The committee promotes healthcare literacy, works to mitigate existing healthcare disparities in the U.S., and does outreach to community partners.

That outreach to community partners and Guider’s awareness of the intersectionality between the environment and health sparked her interest in the Sierra Club. As an RPG ExCom member, she says she hopes to promote awareness and spearhead policy to create a healthy environment and improve human health.

Guider has lived in Naperville since 1983. She holds a Master’s degree in Public Health from Benedictine University and is an inductee and lifetime member of Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health. She is a distinguished Paul Ambrose Scholar. Guider is also a voter registrar and previously served on the board of the Naperville League of Women Voters.

Janice has two sons and three grandchildren. She continues to care and advocate for her youngest son, who is severely disabled. She loves jazz, history, the health sciences, gardening, cooking, and food photography, and describes herself as a perennial learner. She spends a lot of time researching and writing, hopeful that her life contributes to others in a meaningful way.

Thank you, Linda Sullivan

 By Lonnie Morris

In January of this year, Linda Sullivan stepped down from the executive committee of the River Prairie Group after being in the position for over 20 years. During her tenure with the group, she served as chair of the political and lobby committees as well as chair for the statewide Sierra Club lobby committee, transforming all of them into powerful agents of change.

In the movie Garden State, Sam (Natalie Portman) offers Andrew Largeman (Zak Braff) her headphones, urging him to listen to a song she says will change his life. I don’t know if songs can change a life, but people certainly do, and Linda Sullivan is one of those people.  

Linda connected with the Sierra Club when she decided to make democracy come alive for her US History students at Lyons Township High School. Her goal was to teach about democracy and empower the students to take action on an issue of their own choosing. The first step was developing an understanding of the topic, a familiar task for both teacher and students. The next step of finding the right avenue for showing students how they could make a difference, proved more challenging.

Linda called several organizations who suggested the students hold a carwash, a bake sale, or T-shirt sale to raise money for them. But when she called the Sierra Club, the director, Jack Darin, said, “Why don’t I hook you up with an organization that can help your students do citizen science on dirty diesel truck emissions in your area. Then they can compile their research and come down to Springfield with Sierra Club and make a presentation to a Senate committee that is considering a bill to limit diesel truck emissions.” And, so they did. 

What began as a student social action project led to one of Linda’s most important roles with Sierra Club: the recruitment and training of volunteers for lobbying their elected representative on behalf of environmental legislation. It was a natural fit for her. She cares deeply about protecting the planet and wants to ensure that what she does has an impact. When looking back on her time with the Sierra Club, Linda concluded that, “Minute for minute, the absolute most effective thing you can do for the environment is lobby your legislators in district.”  

Linda brought the right skill set for heading up the lobby team. She’s a skilled researcher, a persuasive speaker, and possesses an exceptional knack for finding the right personal story to illustrate the harm inflicted on people’s health and lives by inadequate environmental legislation.

The work being done was important, and Linda loved what she was doing. She exuded a contagious enthusiasm inflected with joy at being part of something that was making a difference. She is famously known for telling volunteers at the annual briefing on the bills they’d soon be discussing with their representatives that “The absolute most fun you can have saving the environment is Lobby Day in Springfield.”  

After the lobby team was assembled and regular visits to their legislators were being made, the laws Sierra Club supported began to pass. The dirty diesel truck emissions bill Linda worked on with her students passed. A clean energy and energy efficiency bill passed in 2007, and the years-long effort on behalf of the Future Energy Jobs Act (FEJA) finally succeeded in 2017, solidifying Illinois’s commitment to a clean-energy economy. 

Linda brought the same enthusiasm with similar results to her work as the chair of the River Prairie Group’s political committee. The committee under her leadership vetted and endorsed the best environmental candidates for state and federal offices.  Sierra Club endorsed Sean Casten for his strong commitment to tackling climate change in his 2018 challenge to the incumbent Peter Roskam. Linda worked tirelessly throughout the election season putting together teams of canvassers for knocking on doors and recruiting volunteers for staffing numerous phone banks. The effort paid off. 

Casten’s victory was a huge win for the environment. Roskam’s dismal lifetime record on the environment, captured by a League of Conservation Voters rating of 9%, was replaced by Casten’s 97% rating earned during his first two years in office.  

I’m a better environmentalist because I met Linda Sullivan and have benefited greatly from what she taught and modeled for me. She has made a difference in the lives of all of us: friends, colleagues, volunteers, and all the people who are now breathing cleaner air. 

Kathleen Fischer’s love of science and water a good fit for Chapter Ex-Com

 By Linda Sullivan

Kathleen Fischer says she has always loved everything to do with water. She fell in love with science her senior year in high school, she said, inspired by her chemistry teacher. She combined her two interests by first earning her B.S. degree in chemistry from the University of Illinois Chicago and later a Ph.D. in oceanography from Oregon State University, specializing in marine sediment geochemistry.

Fischer was born in Cicero and raised in Lisle. Her career took her to places as diverse as NASA’s Stennis Space Center Naval Research Laboratory in Mississippi as an oceanographer, and Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina, an historically Black college, as a professor of oceanography.

When she semi-retired, Kathleen returned to Lisle. With two friends from Elizabeth City State, she co-founded Applied Research in Environmental Sciences Non-Profit Inc. with a mission to get cutting-edge science into mainstream use. For the past 13 years she has been the treasurer, and is now president of the organization.

She connected with the River Prairie Group when she saw RPG’s Water Sentinels data online. She contacted Water Sentinels Chair Bob Barbieri, who trained her to be a water sample tester--a good fit for a water lover and chemist! When Bob and his wife, Bonnie, decided to take several months to hike the Appalachian Trail, Fischer filled in for him, uploading data and reporting to RPG ExCom. She also immersed herself in the clean water campaign to remove the Graue Mill Dam from Salt Creek, spending hours organizing volunteers. She has since become the RPG’s representative to the Chapter ExCom.

Fischer is an avid cross-country skier, hiker, backpacker, and swimmer. She loves animals and lives with her family, three dogs and four cats. She still loves water and hopes to scuba dive off the Caribbean Islands. 

DuPage Monarch Project presents awards

By DuPage Monarch Project

Connie Schmidt presents award to
Jeff Palmquist of Fox Valley Park District

The DuPage Monarch Project recognized the Fox Valley and Naperville Park Districts at a virtual awards ceremony on January 19th for their outstanding commitments to the recovery of monarchs and pollinators. While many things came to a standstill during the coronavirus pandemic, the Fox Valley and Naperville Park Districts continued on with their mission of providing islands of nature where both people and pollinators find safe refuge from the challenges they’re facing.

Fox Valley Park District is the recipient of the Jane Foulser Habitat Award for the addition of over 19 acres of habitat during the past year. The District has been developing additional pollinator habitat within the 548 acres classified and managed as natural areas since 2016 when they joined the DuPage Monarch Project. As the evidence of pollinator decline grows and the critical role pollinators play in ecological and human health becomes clear, Fox Valley Park District is to be commended for steadily increasing the amount and quality of suitable habitat available to bees, butterflies, and the many species of pollinating insects.

“This award validates the commitment of the Fox Valley Park District and our staff to pollinator habitat. Expansion, enhancement, and management of pollinator habitat remain a top priority of our Board of Commissioners. The award directly supports our pillar of conservation and environmental stewardship, and we appreciate the DuPage Monarch Project’s collaborative approach in addressing monarch decline,” said Jeff Palmquist, Director of Planning, Research, and Grants for the Fox Valley Park District.

Connie Schmidt presents award to
Naperville Park District

Naperville Park District is the recipient of the Pat Miller Community Engagement Award for their longstanding commitment to involving residents in the District’s natural areas development and enhancement from the planning to planting phase. While habitat projects are in the planning stage, residents are offered an opportunity to comment and provide input. Volunteers take active roles in the creation of new habitat and in enhancing and maintaining existing areas. Scouts, corporate, church, and service groups regularly volunteer for weeding, seeding, planting, and removing invasive species. In 2018 and 2019, volunteers participated in a Dandelion Pull, cosponsored by Midwest Grows Green, as part of the natural land maintenance approach used at Knoch Knolls Park. The extensive community participation spreads awareness of the problems facing pollinators and provides ways for concerned residents to be directly involved in the solutions.  

“We thank the DuPage Monarch Project for this award, which recognizes our efforts to not only increase monarch habitat but educate the public about this important issue. Each year we display monarch butterflies in our nature center, allowing visitors to view the stages of a monarch’s life. Since 2016 we have added five Monarch Waystations to our parks and hosted a Monarch Festival that was attended by 700 people. At the Naperville Park District, we are committed to taking care of the environment by expanding pollinator habitat and involving the community each step of the way,” said Angelique Harshman, Nature Center Manager at the Knoch Knolls Nature Center.

“DuPage Monarch Project is proud of the Fox Valley and Naperville Park Districts for integrating pollinator preservation into the vision for their parks,” said Lonnie Morris, Coordinator, DuPage Monarch Project. “Excellent progress is being made on achieving our shared vision of a pollinator-friendly county.”

DuPage Monarch Project is an umbrella organization for the collaboration of four premier DuPage environmental organizations united in their concern for pollinator decline. The Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, River Prairie Group of the Illinois Sierra Club, The Conservation Foundation, and Wild Ones Greater DuPage Chapter share the goal of increasing public awareness of the plight of pollinators and advocating for increasing the amount of healthy habitat available for them.

Web site – https://dupagemonarchs.com/

 

What the heck is that strange plant coming up this spring?

 By Bruce Blake, RPG Conservation Chair

As we are getting into the early spring months of March and April, we will start to see some strange plants poking up in the forest preserves and woodlands. Some of the woodland natives can’t wait for the snow to be gone. When visiting our woodlands, please stay on the trails: respect nature. Don’t disturb the plants so that you and others can enjoy them. Probably the first native plant you might be seeing is Symplocarpus foetidus, or Skunk Cabbage. Yes, this plant does have an odor to attract pollinators. It also creates heat to melt snow around itself.

NPS/Gordon Dietzman

Another plant you may see coming up through the snow is Sanguinaria canadensis, or Bloodroot. Sanguinaria is from the Latin sanguis, meaning blood. The root of the plant will ooze red. Native Americans used it for red coloring and dye.

As the weather starts to warm and the sunlight increases, you may start to see Podophyllum peltatum, or Mayapple or Mandrake. The Latin name comes from the word Anapodophyllum, which means “duck foot leaf.” The leaf is shaped like a duck foot. The fruit it bears can be bitter, but it is edible. The root is poisonous, but an extract from the root called Etoposide is used to treat small-cell carcinoma. Harry Potter fans may recognize this as a plant that screams violently when you pull it out of its pot.

Other natives you will start to see could be Polemonium reptans, or Jacob’s Ladder. Jacob’s Ladder refers to the Biblical story of Jacob being given a ladder to climb to heaven. The leaves are arranged opposite each other in a pattern that resembles a ladder.

You may also find large colonies of Erythronium albidum, or White Trout Lilies. These short plants cover the ground in numbers, then mysteriously disappear in a few weeks. You will never know they were there. They are perennial, which means they come up every year. Like most spring ephemerals, they take advantage of the full sun in early spring before the trees leaf out and shade them.

This next plant is called Dentaria lacinata, or Cutleaf Toothwort. The name Dentaria comes from the little white “teeth” that are on the rhizome. It was once believed that because of these “teeth,” the root could cure toothaches. 

 

Another woodland forb you may find is Claytonia virginica, or Spring Beauty. These plants are very small and delicate, sometimes not more than 3 or 4 inches tall. Their energy is stored in what’s called a corm, which comes to life in spring.

Illinoiswildflowers.info

Of course, what flower do you think of when it comes to spring? Mertensia virginica, or Virginia Bluebells! Bluebells can form large colonies. If you go to Starved Rock State Park in spring, you can see acres of Bluebells covering everything. Once the plant flowers, it disappears until next year.

The plant shown here is called Trillium recurvatum, or Purple Wake Robin. Easy to identify, it has three leaves and three petals. It was used by Native Americans to treat wounds and sores.

One of my favorite spring plants is Arisaema triphyllum, or Jack in-the-Pulpit. A pulpit is an enclosed platform that is used to deliver sermons. The word triphyllum refers to the Greek word for “tri” (three) and phylum (leaf): three leaves! Native Americans used this plant to treat snakebite, ringworm, stomach gas, and rheumatism. Do not try this yourself; it could be poisonous if used incorrectly.

Later in April the Geranium maculatum, also called Wild Geranium or Cranesbill, will start to bloom. The light pink flowers look stunning. When they are pollinated, the seed heads look like a pointed crane. The heads have a spring mechanism that propels the ripe seeds out.

Another native to look for is the Ziza aura, or Golden Alexander. The aura comes from the Latin word for gold.

The Dodectheon meadia, or Shooting Star, can be found if you look for it closely. The Dodectheon is in the Primrose Family. Dodectheon means twelve gods. In Greek mythology, the primrose was under the protection of the twelve gods.

These are just a few of the many native plants that grow in our local community. Many of our native plants can only be found in special areas that have been saved from farming and land development. The Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, The Morton Arboretum, local Park Districts, and other groups have tried to preserve habitat for these natives that once spread across our state. The River Prairie Group supports their efforts to help restore these areas. We work with many groups to restore native plants and the pollinators--insects and birds--that survive on them. We usually have volunteer work groups that meet to do this restoration, but, because of the pandemic restriction on working with groups, we have not yet been able to safely get together. If the situation improves so that we can work together safely, and you are interested in volunteering, please send me an e-mail at rllnstns1@aol.com.