Chapter Events

Join us at Wild Things 2026 for an exciting lineup of workshops, presentations, and sessions from regional and national experts, plus meet & greets, video content, exhibitors, sponsors, and more! 

Learn about the bats of Illinois and Lake County, including steps you can take to provide habitat for bats in your backyard or neighborhood. Understand threats to bats and simple ways you can help to protect your local bat populations.

Speaker: Dr Joy O'Keefe, Associate Professor and Wildlife Extension Specialist in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign.

Our upcoming webinar with Basil Camu explores practical, evidence based ways to heal suburban and urban landscapes by working with trees, soil, and natural systems, drawing on real world practices from Leaf & Limb and community centered models for restoring life where we live, work, and play.!  

Inviting birds into gardens by creating habitat is a joyful way to connect with nature and help support birds and pollinators. This presentation features Pam Karlson’s photos from her Chicago bird garden habitat she created, illustrating how it’s possible to attract over 100 bird species. Tips include landscape enhancements, practices and plant selection, with an emphasis on native plants. 

Speaker: Pam Karlson, certified professional gardener/ garden designer and licensed wildlife & migratory bird rescue and rehabilitation volunteer.

Join Joey Santore, creator of Crime Pays But Botany Doesn’t, for a candid Wild Ones National Webinar examining how inherited garden aesthetics shape native plant landscapes. Drawing on field experience and real ecology, Joey challenges tidy design norms and explores why dense, irregular plant communities are often the most resilient and ecologically sound.

Jumping worms (Amynthas spp.) are an invasive group of earthworms now found in parts of Illinois.  This program will share current research on their identification, biology, and ecological impacts, along with emerging approaches for monitoring and management. 

Speaker: Tricia Bethke, Forest Pest Outreach Coordinator at the Morton Arboretum

Sometimes, even the best-intended native landscape can be seen as offensive to some of the neighbors, or even the municipality. This presentation will offer tips, techniques and plant suggestions for front and backyard native landscaping, that will be sure to pacify even the most provincial passerby.

Speaker:  Native Landscape Designer, Dave Neu

Details coming soon! 

Details coming soon! 

Details coming soon!