today i spent a couple hours pulling invasives (mostly honeysuckle, haven’t made it up to the porcelain berry yet) and identifying trees. idnr puts out an awesome forest trees of illinois book that i have coveted for a long time but yet have scored for myself. i borrowed a friend’s so i could figure out what some of the trees are. to date, here is a list of trees i have identified:

sycamore
black walnut
sassafras
pumpkin ash
slippery elm
dogwood
redbud
mulberry
box elder

i was stoked to see so many slippery elm out there today. there were a lot of little saplings, most being choked out by the honeysuckle which i removed today. this is going to be a long, long project to see to completion! there are more invasives than i first realized and i’ve barely even begun.