I am remiss in not doing more with Midewin, the nearly 20,000-acre U.S. Forest Service site near Wilmington, right next to Des Plaines State Fish and Wildlife Area.

Remiss for a couple reasons: 1) It is such a resource for the area. It's the biggest public site in Chicago outdoors; 2) Uses of the site continue to evolve and grow--birding, biking, hiking, hunting, prairie love--and it remains very much in the formative stages.

So I stopped by Saturday morning for National Public Lands Day, something else I don't do enough with.

I was amazed how many volunteers were out Saturday morning, both working on the seed beds and out at Iron Bridge Trailhead (some are pictured above cutting brush).

There will be more on this later.

I will do better, both by Midewin and NPLD.