[Music] in this episode of take a hike we're taking nature to new heights i'm weiu's lacey spence and in today's episode we'll share why you should visit forest glen preserve take a hike on weiu is supported by rural king america's farm and home store camping supplies kayaks fishing and pet supplies and more find your store and more information regarding rural king at ruralking.com hi i'm weiu's lacey spence i've lived in central illinois my whole life and if there's one thing i've learned you don't have to go far to find the beauty of the great outdoors come along with me as i visit a variety of parks and natural areas in central illinois and share why you should take a hike to each episode's location adventure and fun await and take a hike the miniseries thank you for joining us for this episode of take a hike i'm your host lacey spence and we are at forest glen preserve today a beautiful sunny day and we are joined by susan biggs warner and can you please tell us what your title is well i am one of the educators here and i'm also the historical interpreter excellent so we've got a jill of all trades to walk us through everything forest glen so first of all what is kind of the the history or the background of forest glen what should folks know about it well we are the oldest park in the vermillion county conservation district and we were formed right after the actual conservation district was formed in 1966 the district formed in in 68 forest glen started and we are the original park and we have a lot of other parks that are in the conservation district though kennecock is a wonderful park real close to danville and then we have heron boardwalk and then also we have uh songer pavilion up at lake the uh lake vermillion excellent and so if i'm somebody who's coming from danville about how long of a drive is it well it probably would take you about 20 to 30 minutes to get here it's not that far but um we are out in the country yeah yeah it's gorgeous out here and so as we are talking today we've got some historical type buildings behind us we're taping this at the end of september and so you all just had your pioneer days we had pioneer days and our revolutionary war reenactment and the revolutionary war reenactment's gone on for quite a few years but pioneer day is is our original program and i was just looking today um when i was putting some stuff away and i realized we've been doing it 45 years ah how special is that so what's kind of the the history or can you tell us a little bit of the background of the the buildings that's around us yes it's uh we at first decided that they needed a permanent building to do the pioneer days in and so they decided they'd build a little cabin well our staff actually built the cabin they designed it and the staff built it they would do a few logs when they had the time and then they actually did the chimney and everything so our maintenance staff they're pretty talented and they put that together and then they decided this would be great to do school programming at and eventually we added the barn so they're not either one old buildings but they're made like the old ones were say they look authentic you could have fooled me but so as you talk about educating students we were actually able to catch a little bit of outdoor school today can you talk about how that program kind of started and how it flows well it's one of our favorite programs here at the conservation district because we feel like we've been doing it so long and it's a integral part of being a fourth or fifth grader in vermillion county it's been going on since though maybe 72 something like that and marilyn campbell who was the first district naturalist it was her idea and the students that come they actually have a book that they go with and it go through and they come for four days we have we guess over sixty thousand students have gone through outdoor school over the years wow and it takes place at kennecock and at forest glen in the spring and the fall that is a lot of young young folks just getting hands-on in nature you were telling me this is kind of maybe the first real outdoor taste that some of them get yes it's we may have kids from one of the rural schools around and their country kids and they they go outside all the time or they've cooked a hot dog on a fire before and then we'll get kids that are town kids or city kids from danville and they've never done anything like that and so just the simple being outdoors for four days in a row is just such an important thing and all the area teachers find it really important also and we missed last year most of the students get didn't get to come last year so we're really happy to be back doing it and this can hopefully maybe breed some folks who when they get older maybe they want to get into nature themselves think that it really makes people learn and about nature and we have been doing this so long we have lots of adults that say i remember when i went outdoors school so that's just um it's so important for people to realize and it also some of the kids will bring their parents back out they said i spent the day at forest glen and we need to go back this weekend exactly and we tell them that i sometimes say your homework is to bring somebody from home back out here this weekend that's awesome so talking about the family what kind of opportunities recreationally are there for families for singles for people just wanting to check out the place well you know the parks here have so much for people and everything from just simply coming out on your own and going for a nice stroll or a walk everything we have hikes that go from the accessible trail that is going to be dedicated next weekend that is paved with asphalt nice and flat great for wheelchairs moms with strollers things like that you could walk it in high heels all the way down to our 11 and a half mile backpack trail and we have people from three or four states that come and do that and usually it's a two day thing they camp out in a remote area if i'm somebody who's wanting to take advantage or see what's upcoming at forest glen do you all have a facebook or a website what's the best resource probably you could go to our website and you know if you just put in vermillion county conservation district we'll pop right up and we've got a great calendar on there and then we do have facebook also and they have always got updates on there about everything and hopefully by the time everybody sees this will be full force back into all of our events can only hope yeah so as you were talking about the trails how many trails ish are in forest glen oh there's six or seven different trails that are here there there are trails a lot of our trails tend to be about a mile maybe a mile and a half and then we have the large river ridge backpack trail that we were saying is big and exciting to go on awesome is there any fishing or anything else out here yes a lot of people will come out and they'll fish sometimes they fish off the banks at the willow creek pond or some of the littler ponds and sometimes they put in like a canoe or a kayak or something and go out into the pond and do some fishing or trolling motor fishing and uh i've heard we have a lot of bass in a couple of the ponds and bluegill are popular too yes and and you know camping is big right now um last year during our our pandemic we had a lot of people that didn't want to go too many places so they came camping and we were full a lot and we have tent camping and rv camping and we also have a group campground interesting and as you were mentioning the kayaking and things of that nature is there any swimming allowed here or no no no swimming we used to have a beach at uh kennecock but you know people's really started having pools at home and uh we we got away from that more into people with kayaks they're people love kayaks now and they bring them out and put them in up at kennecock and lake mingo and down here in our pond and people who aren't familiar with the area or with forest glen do you guys rent out any of that equipment at all or do i need to make sure i bring my own you need to bring your own with you and uh you know there's a nice little ramp to put it in and uh at our largest pond and if i'm coming out here for the first time is there a certain spot within a forest glen that's maybe your favorite or you can't leave without seeing well there's a lot of them that i would say are my favorites but i one thing that we do have that's unique here is our tower we have a 72 foot observation tower and it's a lot like the fire towers that you would see out west and you know it's a beautiful time of year at any time that you go up there because you're going to get above the trees and you're going to be able to see the tops of the trees and over towards the river and you'll see the vermillion river coming through there and it that's a great thing so it's a very unique thing um some of our trails that are very spectacular i would say uh probably big woods trail is the largest ravine system trail and it goes through the beach maple forest and it's beautiful and we have some nature preserves in the park too really so yes there are four nature preserves and most of them are quite a hike except if you would go down willow creek trail you would come to howard's hollow sea named after the howard family that lived here uh years ago and actually one of their their ancestors still works with us and uh they have a that's a great sea area and there's a lot of rare plants that are in there and it's right off the trail that sounds gorgeous it's beautiful there and are there any sort of conservation efforts that happen i know that we're bringing in the kids to educate them but are there any sort of clean up days or ways that community members can give back to forest glen well we always are looking for volunteers we use volunteers for our special events we use volunteers to help us with like our gardens and things of that sort uh bluebird monitoring they they have volunteers for that and for people that maybe don't want to get out in a group to do something we have trail stewards and they will turn in a list of the things that are you know maybe need repaired or whatever on the trail they hike each month and that helps us tremendously a little bit of hey there's a tree down this might need a dress yes with you know we've got over 1800 acres and so sometimes we don't always get around to everything to see and we might miss something so they can let us know so we can get it cleaned up takes a village it does and so as you mentioned the bluebird monitoring is there a lot of opportunities for birding around here i feel like earlier did you mention eagles yes oh yeah we have eagles we we see so many birds here and it is a destination for birders we have a lot of birders from indy and chicago and st louis that come here and uh i think we just get kind of accustomed and spoiled to how many birds are here uh the pileated woodpeckers that live here we see them commonly we hear them all the time and people will trek down and want to want to know where they should go and we go just go for a walk on one of our trails and you'll probably get to at least hear one so yeah we have a lot of birds here and we have a long history we have bird charts that date back into the 70s of all the birds that were here and are still around and if i'm somebody who's maybe new to hearing about birding what is a bird chart oh i guess yes that's a very good question well we over the years would write down each bird we saw you get to put it on the list once and usually you put the date and your initials by it and it needs to be a confirmed sighting and we would marilyn campbell was here when she when she was here she was a huge birder so we have some bird charts that have 180 190 different birds on them from back when she was birding and much more of an expert than i could ever dream of being and i know driving through we noticed a lot of different types of foliage and plant life um is that something i'm sure you guys are kind of proud of yes we are we we are situated in a unique thing we are on one side of the park were more beach maple and on the other side were more oak hickory forest and those two systems are meeting here and so we see all kinds of plants and all the different trees from both of those kinds of forests and then we also have our prairie and the prairie the doris westfall prairie she created that prairie with seed from the area and it is the only nature preserve in i think illinois that is a man-made nature preserve it's most are natural of course and who was she she was a retired nurse who was from the area was an audubon member and was very interested in prairies and as as she retired and she started working they they decided they would build a prairie here and it took years and when you are standing in the middle of it you would think you were in the the grand prairie 200 years ago and for our uh again our school kids that we were talking about earlier you were you and i were talking off camera that as they're driving through they can also notice a lot of the wildlife what kind of inhabits the park well sometimes they see more when they're still on the bus because they're not making so much noise is when they're walking through the trail that uh we always tell them they have to sneak through the woods it is really this is a great place for deer and every evening just before dusk we get lots of folks from the local towns will come out and they cruise through the park to watch the deer and you know some of them come every day if they can and they they drive slow and watch our deer and they've seen little fawns grow up all season and now they're looking to see if they see any of the bucks but uh so besides deer though we have we have coyotes and both kinds of foxes we have lots of groundhogs this year this has been a great year for groundhogs we had the cicada emergence and the young groundhogs i didn't know that they were going to do this but they were munching up some of those cicadas they're they're actually a herbivore but they were eating the cicadas this year dang so uh let's pivot a little bit and talk about i think it's sugar bush and then also the um maple syrup that comes out of here that's another specialty um there aren't too many people in illinois that produce maple syrup and we're certainly not the biggest but we are definitely one that invites a lot of people to come see it so we we don't just demonstrate it we actually do produce maple syrup some years it might only be 30 or 35 gallons but a couple years we've made over 150 and we tap around 500 trees they they have increased it a little bit and that happens in february and then in march we have traditionally a pancake and sausage dinner and the sugar bush is actually the building where the syrup is made okay and that's where the evaporator is because the process is you're not it's the only thing i know where you aren't mixing things together to make something you're taking something out you get rid of the water and what you're left with is maple syrup and so as we're in our last couple of minutes here is there anything else that happens during the year that we didn't quite hit that people should maybe mark in their their calendar for gosh you know i would say they should watch our calendar and just pick out the things that they love um we do so many things we go clear from retreats and and bird watching events and and you could go out and go on a hike to the history events that that occur here and usually those larger things we do every year and you know forest glenn if we're not doing something there's something great going on at kennecock we're all the same place and we do a lot of programs at both places and there's something to keep you busy at least once a month and if you're not familiar with the area how far is the other the other parks yes they are well kennecock is is just outside of danville it's on hinning road and it's just north of kickapoo state park we're a county park of course and then lake vermilion has the boat dock boat ramp area on it and then at the end of lake vermilion that's where heron boardwalk is and it's wonderful even if you've got a family member in a wheelchair it's wheelchair accessible they could go out and go the whole boardwalk and go out into the lake on a boardwalk great bird watching place and that's so incredible too to make sure that everybody can get a taste of the outdoors because i know we typically think that it's kind of rugged for what you're doing and so it's so nice that like you said as well uh the dedication of the new trail that'd be fabulous um in just our last minute or so is there anything coming in the future for forest glen you can think of well we do have some building that we're looking at where we're going to redo our nature center there will be we've had donations made for a new nature center that is really exciting and then the gannett center where we hold our outdoor school classes and we also that's where our maple syrup event is and a lot of other things that has gotten redone somewhat and then they're going to build some new classrooms onto it here in the near future very exciting so definitely if you're watching this keep a close eye out on that on the newest developments here and we're going to take a quick break and transition into our sights and sounds of outdoor school so don't go anywhere you're watching take a hike on weiu you may know about dangerous plants like poison ivy and poison oak but what about the animals and insects that live in illinois here are some critters big and small that you'll want to look out for the biggest threats on the trail may come from the creatures we can't even see like ticks spiders and insects that bite and sting there are at least 15 species of ticks in illinois though you're only likely to encounter a handful since they attach themselves whenever they bite they're efficient at carrying disease so it's important to keep them away from your skin as much as possible to prevent tick bites and tick-borne diseases make sure you're checking yourself and others for ticks every couple of hours as well as staying on trails and away from brush wearing protective clothing like long sleeve shirts and pants and using bug spray that will protect against ticks of course if you do spot a tick on your body remove it right away and make sure to wash and disinfect the bite area there are two venomous spiders in illinois and i bet you know what they are the brown recluse and black widow both of their bites can be deadly so it's important to get medical attention right away if you're bitten there are four species of venomous snakes found on illinois and you'd be most likely to see the copperhead as it's found in the southern two-thirds of the state of illinois however experts say the risk of being bitten by one of these snakes is very low since all four species are non-aggressive toward people researchers say central illinois doesn't contain any habitats that would support small populations of bears mountain lions or wolves despite that it's always smart to be prepared in case of a chance encounter with a large predator the most important thing to remember is to stand your ground respect the animal's space and slowly back away there is this beautiful mushroom right here this mushroom is called a chicken of the wood it's one of the edible mushrooms but we're not going to pick it and eat it we're just going to enjoy looking at it it would have to be cooked of course and should you just go out and pick a bunch of mushrooms and then eat them no no some of them are poisonous so we're just gonna enjoy looking at it so if you find something amazing you can call us and we'll come look at it with you okay okay so walk don't run carefully be careful mushroom heading you move slowly [Music] [Applause] poisonous all right well this one is edible and this one is not so can you eat this one it's a little past it's prime but yeah well there's lots of them we could always pick them i know i know they're actually a little old though well can i pick one no we don't want to take any more of them we'll leave them here for the animals yeah while the weiu crew didn't sample any chicken of the woods we did have a fabulous time at forest glen preserve we hope you'll join us again next time on take a hike the mini series [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] take a hike on weiu is supported by rural king america's farm and home store camping supplies kayaks fishing and pet supplies and more find your store and more information regarding rural king at ruralking.com