The Chicagoland Journals
The biomass collection has begun! Mary-Claire, the research assistant in charge of the prairie restoration project, had her last week before going on maternity leave, so I assisted her in the prairie on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Due to pretty heavy rain on Wednesday, I made use of my time by arranging our backlog of biomass that was in the cooler and then weighing the biomass that had been dried in the ovens since Monday. Whilst I sorted the chilled plants, four of our volunteers finished weighing the paper bags we use to collect the biomass – I had spent two afternoons doing this, yet the volunteers managed to get all the remaining bags measured in just one morning!
After the initial collecting on Monday, we realised a few issues. Primarily, that we needed even smaller bags for some of the species, as there was hardly any above ground biomass remaining. This was resolved by Wednesday, when Mary-Claire acquired some new and tinier bags. Another issue encountered was that the leaf litter in the plots with fifteen different species was difficult to ID to species and would’ve taken more time than we had available. We settled on collecting all this detritus into a separate bag to be included in the total biomass of the plot.
On Friday, I took another trip to Macomb to see my “friend from Edge Hill, who is actually from Illinois,” Molly. She had many things to show me, her home in “The Boonies,” The Spoon River Valley Scenic Drive, and Wildlife Prairie Park.
A friend of mine in secondary school used to joke about me living in the middle of nowhere because I lived just outside a small village. We only lived 20 miles apart. Being driven through Illinois, just one state in the US, really gave me a sense of perspective. Although most food along the drive wasn’t vegan, I did manage to eat an obscene amount of popcorn and a delicious apple cider slushie. I also had a “lemon shake-up” a still, sugary lemon drink. Still on my American Bucket List is trying American lemonade, which is different from the lemonade back across the bond that is synonymous with Sprite or 7-Up. After driving back to Molly’s home, we cooked up some funnel cake made with soy milk, which was enough to induce a food coma combined with everything else from that morning.
That night, after driving back up to Western Illinois University, strong enough winds occurred to warrant a tornado warning. We were just on the eastern edge of the stormy area, with more severe weather expected to our west. Still, just seeing the rain fall nearly horizontal outside the window was incredible – although I was happy to be inside.
The weather cleared up for the following day, although it was still fairly windy at times. Molly and I headed down to Wildlife Prairie Park, a zoological park home to many native animals of the Illinois area – most of which seemed to be rescued after a serious injury or taken in after being kept as illegal pets. What was also nice to see was a historical section in the visitor centre, detailing the history of the area, and how Peoria got its name (it’s named after the Peoria tribe). Before returning to Macomb station, we visited what must’ve been the biggest bookstore I’ve ever seen in my life. A Barnes and Nobles that according to Yelp reviewer Colleen is only “average-sized.” I guess most things really are just bigger in America.