Saving the Kankakee Mallow
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Saving the Kankakee Mallow
A unique island species a little more than one hour from Chicago's Loop.
On a small island in the Kankakee River, about 60 miles south of Chicago, there exists a wildflower found nowhere else on earth.
The Kankakee Torrent, a near biblical flow of water after the last glaciation, washed through these parts and left just the right conditions for this relative of the hollyhock to thrive. The isolation of a 20-acre island ensured its survival down through the ages into the 20th century.
The fortunes of the Kankakee Mallow have risen and fallen in the past, just like the Kankakee River that surrounds it. When I first wrote learned about the mallow, in 2020, the river was well above flood stage, making the island inaccessible. This year, the river was so low it was challenging to get the boat across. That’s important because the Kankakee Mallow is a species that will continue to require human assistance.
Nine years ago, the plant was on its way to functional extinction, with no adult plants left in the wild. It was right around then that biologist Trevor Edmonson moved to the Kankakee area from DeKalb.
“I didn't know about it until I moved here,” Edmonson told me in 2020. “I became aware of it after I started doing volunteer work at Kankakee River State Park. I had been clearing some honeysuckle in a little sand savanna, but had my efforts redirected after got involved with the [Illinois] Native Plant Society and met our local Nature Preserves Commissioner Kim Roman. I do restoration as part of my job and knew what an opportunity I had when this project [the mallow] kind of fell into my lap.”
The next step was to rally Chicago's community of habitat volunteers and get them out to the island. People came from as far away as the North Suburbs of Chicago for a work day on an autumn-like day, Saturday, Sept. 13, 2014. Edmonson rowed them the 100 yards or so to the island on a small boat.
“The Native Plant Society had a canoe trip that summer, but they went out on canoes and couldn’t even get on the island, it was so thick with [invasive] honeysuckle,” Edmonson says. “On our first work day, we made it a point to look for mallow plants and couldn’t find any. The savanna was completely overgrown with a wall of 10-foot honeysuckle.”
The mallow hadn’t been documented on the island since 2003.
“Our goal was to begin the process of healing what was there and let nature sort of fix itself,” Edmonson says. “We were hoping the seed bank was still viable. We haven’t seeded anything out there throughout this process.”
The years of management, still an all-volunteer effort, have resulted in nearly 1,000 plants on the island.
“It was a nice confluence of events, I had moved to the area, the Native Plant Society did the field trip, and we all converged on the island at the right time,” Edmonson says. “We’ve made a lot of progress.”
“It continues to recover,” adds Steve Bohan, a volunteer with Friends of Langham Island, told me last month. “We keep finding it in new places on the island.”
There is a constant battle to clear the island of invasive honeysuckle. Sweet Clover, Black Mustard, and Autumn Olive also keep the volunteers busy.
“Long-term, it would be an extraordinarily rare day that we wouldn't cut at least some honeysuckle,” says Bohan.
The island location poses unique challenges for volunteer restoration. After all, there are 200 miles of the Kankakee River watershed upstream of the Kankakee River State Park, where Langham Island is located.
“We get in the majority of [restoration] dates that are set,” Bohan says. “In winter, it’s often the case that there is ice and it’s not safe to cross. In spring the river rises. We were very lucky to get over there every scheduled day this spring, which is fairly unusual. We watch the river gauges pretty closely.”
“It’s a great responsibility, and there are a lot of other projects like that around the region that are worthy,” said Edmonson, who now directs projects at Kankakee Sands in Indiana. “I take pride that this one is a Kankakee thing, and it is a great tool to start a conversation about nature with folks. Most people still don’t know that it exists, even here locally. We hope to change that.”
Birding at Kankakee River State Park
For birding near Langham Island, I recommend walking the lengthy river trail during most any season. In summer, the park’s home to hard-to-find local species like Acadian Flycatcher, Pileated Woodpecker, and Yellow-billed Cuckoo. You also might find Yellow-throated Vireo or Red-headed Woodpecker in the woods or Dickcissel in the grassy areas. Wild Turkey and Ring-necked Pheasant are possibilities, too. In winter, keep your eyes out for a Purple Finch high up in riverside sycamores.
“Bald Eagles have returned to the Kankakee River,” Steve Bohan adds. “We occasionally see [American White] Pelicans. We had a dozen or more on a sandbar in the park, less than a mile downstream [of Langham Island].”
Checking in on Flaco
Flaco is a Eurasian Eagle Owl that’s been living its best life in New York since escaping from the Central Park Zoo in February. Flaco’s been surviving and thriving since making it out of captivity. There were attempts to recapture the raptor, however he remained elusive and ultimately it was decided to just let him be. The latest image of Flaco shows him sitting on a bulldozer at a construction site in the northeast corner of Central Park.
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Sitting and watching the birds go by
Big Sit teams are going to be back at it again this weekend, sitting in a 17-foot circle and identifying as many bird species as possible. The Illinois Ornithological Society (IOS) Big Sit returns this Friday through Sunday, and most anyone can participate from most anywhere in this grand tradition of birding. The event also serves as a fundraiser for IOS and you can sign up here.
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Saving the Kankakee Mallow
Will this beautiful story become a film? Release in 2024, celebrating 10 years of restoration work?!! 🌸💗🌸