Science & Nature

Wildlife Is Reclaiming Territory at Swallow Cliff Woods After Successful Campaign to Keep People Off DIY Trails

It’s not often that a forest preserve district wants to brag about decreased trail usage.

But in the case of Swallow Cliff Woods in Cook County’s Palos Preserves, ecologist Kristin Pink is thrilled to reveal that an effort to keep people off “unofficial” trails has succeeded.

While it’s “natural that people want to explore,” Pink said, the issue of people carving out their own paths at Swallow Cliff had become unsustainable for the preserve’s rare ecosystems, prompting the Cook County forest preserve district to launch a campaign in 2023 to encourage visitors to stick to marked trails.

Based on data Pink collected before and after barriers and signage were placed at the entry points to these rogue routes, she can report an 80% reduction in users, be it hikers, joggers, cyclists, equestrians or poachers (mostly mushroom thieves).

“No one is coming to Swallow Cliff to do it harm,” Pink said. “Overwhelming, people have, when we’ve asked them to please not do it (use an unofficial trail), they’ve understood and supported that.”

‘The Absolute Worst Thing’

An unofficial trail has eroded a slope at Swallow Cliff Woods, exposing tree roots and destabilizing the bluff. (Forest Preserve District of Cook County)

While straying from an approved trail may seem harmless, the impacts are anything but.

Just a couple of the examples offered by Pink: Mammals have less room to roam freely and without stress of human contact; and species of birds, like the American woodcock, which nest on the ground, can be flushed from their eggs, sometimes never to return.

At Swallow Cliff in particular, the explosion of DIY paths, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, has been ecologically devastating in some areas.

Perhaps best known for its towering set of cardio-blasting limestone stairs beloved by fitness fanatics, Swallow Cliff is actually one of the most biodiverse sites in all of Cook County’s 70,000 acres of forest preserves and is one of the district’s highest priority sites for conservation.

It harbors a number of threatened and endangered species and much of the site rests on a unique geologic deposit — called the Lemont Drift — which consists of fine sand covered in a mantle of clay. If that clay coating is cracked, it exposes the highly erodible sand and the structure begins to collapse.

Landscape architects take those kinds of features into account when laying out trails, but unofficial path-makers don’t.

During the pandemic, someone cut an unofficial zig-zag trail on a slope of Lemont Drift, “which is the absolute worst thing,” Pink said. “If you go there now, there’s huge mature trees with their roots exposed. They’re primed to come down.”

The condition is not only dangerous for people, but once the trees start falling, they’ll bring the ground layer of plants with them, Pink said.

This slope, she added, also contributes to a special kind of wetland at its base called a seep, which is now threatened by the erosion, as well.

“So having this unauthorized trail has cascading negative consequences,” said Pink.

Equally troublesome, an invasive plant called lesser celandine, not previously present in the Palos Preserves, has taken hold along unofficial paths at Swallow Cliffs.

“Now we’re on the leading front of an invasion,” Pink said. “It was brought in and has spread prolifically.”

Staff is using herbicide to beat back the invasive, she said, but native plants are frequently collateral damage.

It was the severity of these issues that sparked the forest preserve district’s “stay on the marked trails” campaign. The good news is that the message about the ecological dangers of unofficial trails seems to have sunk in with most visitors. Pink has identified perhaps 20 “serial” trailblazers who repeatedly ignore barriers, but the significant reduction in overall usage has allowed the landscape to heal.

The Comeback Trail

With barriers and signage in place to discourage use of an unofficial trail, plants have begun reclaiming their territory. (Forest Preserve District of Cook County)

“Plants naturally are growing back and reclaiming territory,” she said, and once the unofficial paths have disappeared, barriers will be removed.

The pilot campaign at Swallow Cliff Woods has been so well received, the forest preserve district will be expanding it in 2025 to keep people off unofficial paths in a pair of neighboring preserves: McClaughrey Spring Woods and Teason’s Woods.

While it’s not necessarily feasible to close off every unofficial trail in Cook County’s vast holdings, special attention is being paid to the Palos Preserves due to their ecological importance and the potential for irreparable harm.

“It is, in a sense, our national park,” Pink said of the Palos system’s 15,000 acres. “We’re in the second most populous county in the nation and we have these huge natural areas, protected. They’re filled with rare plants and animals, rare natural communities, all here in Cook County. It is incredible.”

If sites like Swallow Cliff Woods have been loved a little too much recently, well, the forest preserve district intends to continue exploring ways to use that to the natural area’s advantage.

“Our responsibility is to be a partner with visitors to show them how they can help conserve and protect the sites into the future,” Pink said. “If we just keep going with our efforts, then the future of Swallow Cliff Woods is bright because people do love it. That’s the best thing — people do love it. And people tend to protect places that they love.”

A wetland called a seep is now under threat from erosion at Swallow Cliff Woods. (Forest Preserve District of Cook County)

Contact Patty Wetli: @pattywetli | (773) 509-5623 |  [email protected]

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