Wildlife Spotting

"Johnson's Mound is a heavily wooded classic example of a stratified gravel hill known as a "kame", which was deposited by glacial ice and water some 10,000 years ago. This kame is a prominent feature on our mid-county landscape, rising 50 feet above the surrounding tributaries of Blackberry Creek and the glacial outwash plain." (http://www.kaneforest.com/ForestPreserveView.aspx?ID=29)

Prior to wildfire supression this kame was predominately a bald mound. The exception to this being the famous Shabbona Elm tree. Hundreds of years old and named for Chief Shabbona, a Pottawatomie chief, the tree grew to an enormous 36 inches in diameter before Dutch elm disease claimed it in 1972.

"The mixed hardwood forest is primarily sugar maple, white ash, slippery elm, and basswood. Bur and white oaks grow on the drier west and southwest slope. The understory includes ironwood, blue ash, and hazelnut. Woodland forbs grow richly and include shooting stars and violet wood sorrel where the canopy opens on the western slopes. Dutchman’s breeches, large white trilliums, and blue cohosh can be found throughout the forest." (http://www.chicagowildernessmag.org/CW_Archives/issues/winter2009/itw_j…)