Prairie Woods Audubon Society
General Activities

• Cosponsor International Migratory Bird Day with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service held at Crabtree Nature Center.  We set up scopes and help people identify birds.
  
  
• Host a table at the Palatine Farmers' Market to further identify Prairie Woods and the conservation, wildlife and nature activities we are involved in.
  
  
• Host tables at various village conservation day events to bring more awareness for Prairie Woods and work with families building wren and bird houses.
  
  
• Annual bird seed and gift sale for fundraising for many of our environmental education programs.
  
  
• Eight membership meetings yearly with guest speakers.
  
  
• We have monthly field trips to nature centers, prairie and forest preserves, zoos for birding and nature study activities. Trips have included Horicon Marsh Wisconsin, Effigy Mounds National Monument Iowa, Jasper Puslaski Indiana for sandhill cranes, Garfield Park Conservatory, Ryerson Conservation Area, Monk Parakeets at Wooded Isle, Rollins Savanna Grayslake, Volo Bog, Singing Woods Peoria, as well as many other neighboring areas.  We participate in Birdathon.
  
  
• We offer “Beginning Birder” environmental recreation trips to local areas for bird watching. Bring the binoculars!
  
  
• Management of Palatine Prairie located at Quentin and Wood Streets in Palatine.  The Prairie consists of seven acres of original Illinois prairie that has been designated as an Illinois Nature Preserve.  Approximately 100 species of native plants grow there.  Pictures of our prairie are available on our website.  We schedule prairie work days where we have a program of removing woody and non native species, collecting and planting prairie species seeds. We conduct a controlled burn of approximately one third of the prairie each spring. We planted several Swamp White Oak trees as part of a savannah restoration on the prairie. Prairie Survey:  cataloging of all species of plants present on the Palatine Prairie This helps us to monitor any changes in the prairie ecology as well as help us gauge the effects our management program has had on the prairie.
  
  
• Conservation meetings. Committee and Board members are kept abreast of local, state, and federal issues through Audubon frequent action alert emails, at membership meetings and monthly newsletter articles. We had a letter writing session at a general meeting at which 85 postcards promoting protection for ANWR were mailed.  Prairie Woods also joined the Alaska Coalition.  Representatives of National Audubon Chapters in the Chicago area, including Prairie Woods Audubon, met with Cook County Forest Preserve Superintendent to discuss conservation issues and habitat restoration in the Cook County Forest Preserves.  Several of our members have had Letters to the Editor on conservation issues printed in local newspapers.