Environmental Progress at Clark Street Beach Bird Sanctuary

Clark Street Beach. Photo by Ginny Lee

With the warmer weather, more and more Evanston residents have been flocking towards the shore. One of the town’s many beaches is Clark Street Beach, which lies just South of campus. It is a popular spot for locals to walk along the shore, bike, jog on the paths nearby, or play sand volleyball. But on the weekends, you might see the volunteers of the Clark Street Beach Bird Sanctuary working to preserve native plant and bird species. 

The Clark Street Beach Bird Sanctuary was first established after Northwestern University announced a building project for constructing the Segal Visitor’s Center on a strip of land that had previously been home to various native species. These species included plants such as cottonwood and hackberry as well as bird species such as the Eastern Kingbird and the Baltimore Oriole. The Visitor’s Center, though built on Northwestern property, also extended further into Evanston’s park land, which meant the school had to pay a fine in accordance with the Evanston Tree Ordinance. 

In 2014, Libby Hill, a member of the Evanston North Shore Bird Club and steward of the Perkins Woods, worked with the city to use the money from the fine to recreate the habitat that was lost in the construction of the Visitor’s Center. Hill also worked towards this effort with Judy Pollock, President of the Chicago Audubon Society. Hill later asked Jerry Herst and Julie Dorfman to take on the role of co-stewards of the Clark Street Beach Bird Sanctuary.

“It’s meant to be an oasis, not necessarily for the local year-round inhabitants of the bird population, but specifically for the migrants as they make their way up to their nesting grounds further North or down to their wintering grounds in Central and South America,” said Herst.

The efforts and activities of preserving the Sanctuary kicked off in the spring of 2016 and are still headed by co-stewards Herst and Dorfman, who also happen to be husband and wife. 

Although Herst and Dorfman do not hail from formal environmental backgrounds, they have always shared an interest in spending time outdoors and participated in environmental activism. 

Upon retiring, Herst and Dorfman participated in the Treekeepers course through the Openlands Chicago program, where volunteers are trained to care for forests in urban areas. Since then, they have taken courses at the Chicago Botanical Garden and the Morton Arboretum to further their skills as stewards and share this knowledge with their local leadership committee made up of other local stewards. The committee visits beaches in the area like Illinois Beach State Park and Loyola Beach to observe differences between each unique site and share knowledge. “It continues to be a learning experience and we’re excited at this stage in our lives to be able to get to do this activity”, said Herst. 

Volunteer Efforts

The Sanctuary welcomes any new volunteers, regardless of prior experience. As the Sanctuary is part of the Evanston NorthShore Bird Club, many people volunteer as bird monitors, where they record bird sightings at the Sanctuary or around the lake. However, Herst and Dorfman mainly work with the plants. Maintaining native plant species attracts insects, which in turn provide sustenance for migrating birds. Much of this maintenance includes weeding out invasive species, mulching, planting, and watering during the hotter months. Trained volunteers also lead educational tours regarding the ecology and importance of the Sanctuary. Typically, volunteers are active from mid-March to early November. 

During the winter months, seeds are scattered and sowed in the snow so that they can freeze for a period before eventually melting through the snow, acquiring moisture, and finally sprouting in the spring. Yet, this past year called for a bit more wintertime volunteer work than usual. Due to multiple storms, fencing along the shoreline had to be replaced three different times. With the rising lake tides, beavers were able to leave the campus lagoon and take down multiple cottonwood trees from the Sanctuary. This required volunteers to reinforce fencing and protect the cottonwood trees with hardware cloth to prevent further intrusion from the beavers. 

With COVID, volunteer work has been reduced to smaller volunteer groups. In the past, groups ranged from 15-20 people, with multiple large-scale projects taking place at the Sanctuary. During the pandemic, volunteer activity has mostly involved a small core group of trained volunteers who come a few days a week. 

“Even though we’re wearing masks and keeping our physical distance, it’s harder to show untrained volunteers new things or some of the intricacies of why this particular plant is a weed and this one that looks very similar is not when you can’t get very close. So that’s why we’ve kept the group small,” says Herst regarding the adjustments made due to the pandemic. Yet, he also notes that being able to maintain this work has helped the group deal with the isolation that the pandemic has brought on. 

Looking Ahead

An especially exciting new development is the Evanston Natural Areas Ordinance that will take effect this June. The Bird Sanctuary is one of a few local locations qualified as candidates for the Natural Area title. This means that with this designation, the Sanctuary will receive specialized resources for their conservation efforts along with a targeted ecological management approach. 

“There are populations of insects and birds dropping in numbers and in order for us as a species to maintain our place in this web of life, there needs to be a web and the web needs to be strong,” says Herst. “We can do something here with this little land.”

The progress being made at the Clark Street Beach Bird Sanctuary acts as a beacon of hope for environmental advocacy and stands as evidence of how significant change can be at the local level.