View our chapter’s fall webinar online now! The goal of this webinar is to encourage SER members and organizations to engage with volunteer stewards on ecological restoration work both large and small.  Our panel will share their successful engagements with volunteer stewards while doing ecological restoration.  We will focus on the experience of volunteer stewardship in the Chicago region where volunteer stewardship has been active for the past forty years.  We will hear the perspective of a large governmental agency (Forest Preserves of Cook County), a regional land trust (Openlands) and a contractor (Stantec).

See the webinar recording below:

Participant Bios:

Linda Masters:  Linda has been a restoration specialist at Openlands–a regional land trust in the Chicago region–for over twenty years.  She is also a volunteer steward at her local forest preserve.  Most recently she lead a multi-million dollar wetland mitigation project over five different sites across Cook County.

Dave Bart: Dave Bart is a senior ecologist with fifteen years of experience, currently working for Stantec. Dave specializes in ecological restoration planning, botanical and insect monitoring, and natural areas stewardship. Throughout his career he has experience collaborating and partnering with volunteer stewards on various ecological restoration projects. Outside of work, Dave enjoys botanizing and exploring nature preserves, photographing and studying insects, cooking, and gardening.

Kris Dapra: Kris is the Stewardship Program Coordinator for the Forest Preserves of Cook County.  This agency manages over 70,000 acres of public lands.  Kris oversees a large and very active community of volunteer stewards across the entire county.  In addition, Kris is a volunteer steward at her local Cook Country Forest Preserve.

Mark Krivchenia: Mark has been a volunteer stewardship leader in the Cook County Forest Preserves for the past 14 years.  He currently is a board member on the SER—Midwest/Great Lakes Chapter, and will be the moderator for this event.

See this post on SER’s community calendar.