This shirt made me think of this thread...

I need to get one of those. That is awesome.

quote:

Originally posted by scotty:
Northern White Violet

Biostitute and Mom2 win!

I think it's a white wood violet.

Alrighty, I added my friends photos along with mine into the flash presentation. Here is the linky:

Save Ackerman woods!

Hope you like them. His shots are the first with his new Nikon D300, I think he did a damn fine job!

Amy, you are right. Confirmed by our NR department. I like my photo better though.

I agree. Your photo caught the flower in more subtle light and not fully opened - much nicer. By the way, I didn't see you taking any photos in my front yard...did you ever make it down to capture those plants I mentioned? I found a trillium too - I didn't think we'd had any of those before but we must have because we have one now! I love that!

Unfortunately, I have not been able to make it down there. Sorry!

Oh gosh - no problem! I just know it's hard to find native woodland plants in really good light around here (and apparently hard to find in Ackerman due to the massive choking of garlic mustard).

after viewing the beautiful photos I now know where our next clean up effort can take place.

That was the goal for our photo shoot. My friend had no idea what the place looked like before and his photos show his reaction to the first time seeing it. Unfortunately, this piece of land has more enemies than a soccer field and I hope we showed this. Unlike some people that have accused me of being an enemy of this site, I am far from it. I tried my best to show it in its truest form and could not avoid the toxic dumping, piles of garbage, and invasive plants that are choking off the native wildflowers there. The garlic Mustard is up to my waist now as of yesterday and my camera bag still has crap in it that I picked up. I want this piece of land to remain a forest as much as the next, I think I am just the first to show the other problems of the site than just the park district's chainsaws.

My friend and I will be out to shoot more tomorrow, along with another photographer as well. No punches will be thrown, we will document with an honest, open eye. If that motivates just one person to go in there and pick up some of the trash, we have succeeded in what we were looking to do.

Save Ackerman woods from the village chainsaws, and from it's other enemies as well....

If you think what you see is bad, you should see what is buried under those soccer fields.

Added more photos yesterday after my friend and I went back out. There are a few more natives coming up, and morel mushrooms (that is good!). Good stuff, but the garlic mustard is unreal. I put in 2 shots of a dandelion in there, YES, you can see them anywhere, but yesterday morning it was sooooooo still, I could shoot it so up close you can see drops of water on every seed "parashute". I think I have a signature shot that I do now, black backdrop out in the field (blackdrop being a white sox wind breaker or my wife's t-shirt she is wearing at the time), so I figured leaving in a signature shot would be okay.

Funny, we saw a sign in Lisle in front of the civic center yesterday. They have a "crazy garlic mustard pull" at a forest area they are trying to save. Way cool. I guess hundreds of people come out and pull the garlic mustard out of the wooded area. Pretty cool if the village here did that instead of threatening to chain saw it because there are no "parkway worthy trees" there.

Keith's photos will be up sometime today at this link as well:

http://www.blue-echoes.com/assignment/aws2008/

Funnier, when you go to the GE website, right smack dab in the middle of the front page is an advertisement for a tree seminar they are doing. SAVE YOUR TREES(unless we can cut them down for our profit)!

Wow - some GREAT photos!!! Love that dandelion one with the tiny water droplets....amazing!

Some of Keith's photos are up at the link above. He will have more tonight.

I cannot make this meeting tonight, I need someone to represent me:

Dear Members and Friends:

Below is an email I just received from Melissa Creech Updating the status of Save Ackerman Woods:

1. Thanks to all of the public outcry about the plan to destroy Ackerman Woods, the Village/Park District project is already being delayed. Bid packages have not been released yet, even though they were scheduled to be ready by now. We need to keep up the pressure to turn the delay into a halt of the project and permanent protection for the woods.

2. At the last Village Board meeting, President Hase and several board members indicated they they would like to hear new ideas from the Park District. At the last Park District Board meeting, President Taylor agreed to think about meeting with Ms. Hase. We'll be at the Village Board meeting Monday, May 12 at 8 p.m. at the Civic Center to put pressure on the Board to agree to meet with the Park District about saving Ackerman Woods. Join us- large numbers of supporters make a big impact!!

3. We now have a petition! Sign the Save Ackerman Woods petition at https://petitiononline.securesites.com/gewoods/. Everyone is welcome to sign!

4. At the last GE Park District board meeting, we presented evidence from the soccer board meetings that the boards didn't need new fields and that the soccer enrollment numbers are actually decreasing. When asked about this, the Park District board president admitted that they would just like the new fields. Even the park district president realizes that there is no NEED for more soccer fields, they just want them. Don't put unneeded soccer fields in our woods!

For more information please visit our website at www.saveackermanwoods.com.

The photos are amazing. WoW A clean up at Ackerman woods is a great idea

The cards have all been distributed, the volunteers did an awesome job, the troops are lining up for battle on Tuesday evening, with a few surprises as ammo. Unfortunately I will be in Phoenix and will miss the battle, but I am confident that victory will be had by the group fighting for the trees.

If you have not signed the petition, please do so. If you are free Tuesday night, please stop in and save a tree, and if you care for our environment, please stop the destruction of Ackerman woods.

peace.

Found a beautiful SAWN card on my doorstep yesterday.

quote:

but I am confident that victory will be had by the group fighting for the trees.

You've not lived here for very long...have you?




Just a word of warning regarding tonight's meeting...your interim village manager has been working out.

Found the card stuck in my front door this afternoon. The army has been out and about.