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Crowley Oaks 3:1 Matching Grant

Help raise $7,000 for Crowley Oaks  and your donation is tripled!

You can help meet the Crowley Oaks Stewardship Challenge Grant from Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation (ICECF). Give a gift or your time––both will help restore beautiful Crowley Oaks Preserve in Harvard.

ICECF will contribute $3 for every $1 you give (up to $7,000) between now and October 2022. That turns a $20 gift into $80! If TLC members and friends contribute a total of $7,000, we will receive an additional $21,000 for Crowley Oaks for a total of $28,000! Give online using the link below, or call us at 815-337-9502. You can also mail a check to: 

TLC | PO Box 352 | Woodstock, IL 60098
Attn: Crowley Oaks Match

You can join this dedicated crew of volunteers at Crowley Oaks!

You can also give the gift of your time. When we reach 400 hours of volunteer service at Crowley Oaks, ICECF will contribute another $4,000 to stewardship at the site. 

Restoration workdays are held weekly on Wednesdays, from 9:00 a.m.-noon at 18725 Crowley Rd. Harvard. 

View TLC’s workday calendar

About Crowley Oaks

TLC  preserved Crowley Oaks, an 83.5-acre site in Harvard in 2020.

The property includes remnant oak woods, a headwater stream for one of Chicagoland’s highest quality waterways (Piscasaw Creek) and about 14 acres of sedge meadow and wet prairie habitat.

The site includes nearly 50 acres of white oaks, bur oaks and hickories that are over 200 years old. Crowley Oaks is part of a larger oak woodland that is nearly 200 acres in size, making it one of the largest remaining in the county.

Oaks are a keystone species in any ecosystem where they occur. Their value as habitat for insects, birds and a diversity of mammals is unmatched by any other tree species. Additionally, oak woodlands and savannas are among the most threatened habitat types globally. In the Chicago Wilderness region, 85 percent of the historic oak woods are gone, and fragmentation is the biggest threat to those that remain.

The land adjoins two TLC-protected properties, a 13.5-acre conservation easement and a 6.7 acre natural area, allowing for connectivity of native habitats. 
 

TLC’s initial restoration efforts are focusing on establishing public access to the site, removing invasive trees and brush, and re-establishing native grasses and forbs. TLC will also create a hiking area through the woods that will allow visitors to traverse nearly 30 acres of this unique site.