Trees and Shrubs for Northern Gardens Book

What a great collection! Unfortunately, Jerry Sullivan has passed before my time and interest directed my readings his way. But I do enjoy reading the Chicago Reader and something told me I would have enjoyed a column called "Field and Street," focusing on urban ecology and the pockets of wildlife that are scattered around Chicagoland.

Reading his columns, I've grown to understand that these aren't really 'pockets of wildlife.' Pioneers and policy setters actually did a great job at preserving some of Illinois' natural areas (that is comparatively speaking, of course). Sullivan's columns motivated me to check out some urban wildlife hikes I've always wanted to do (Somme Woods in Northbrook, kayaking the North Branch, Miami Woods, Bunker Hill Prairie Preserve near Devon and Caldwell, etc). In the spring I hope to visit each one and spot some of the wildlife I read about in the book, now that I know what to look for.

On top of an interesting read, Sullivan writes really colorfully for field reporting, and has a grasp on Chicagoland that most of us can relate to. I thought it was funny when he wrote about killing a wasps nest on his deck, he opted not to because that was "the suburban thing to do... Suburbanites are much more into poisons than we are, and their obsession with guarding the ethnic purity of their lawns leaves them with an impoverished selection of arthropods. Suburbanites are people who saturate their property with a mixture of Agent Orange and dieldrin and then say things like, 'I couldn't live in the city, I like nature too much."