Some anniversaries arrive with fireworks and fanfare. Others arrive wearing mud on their boots.
This summer, the Kaskaskia River Delta Waterfowl Chapter in southern Illinois reaches its 20th year, and I find myself thinking less about banquets and more about mornings, less about the dollars raised and more about the people who raised them.
On July 1, Natalie Phelps Finnie stepped down as director of DNR. After more than four years inside the agency – first as deputy director beginning in August 2021, then as director since January 2023 – the woman from Eldorado is closing one chapter and opening another.
Let me back up, because not everyone reading this knows the whole of it.
Gretchen Steele: Natalie Phelps Finnie, a southern Illinois girl, heads home Read More »
On quiet summer mornings along southern Illinois backwaters, a slow roll near the surface of the water often appears before the fish does. A long shadow gliding between lotus stems. Then a quick gulp of air, and the ripple disappears into reflections of cottonwoods leaning toward the river.
A greater appreciation for gar — Illinois’ misunderstood ‘dinosaur fish’ Read More »
The first thing I noticed at Montauk State Park was the water. Cold, impossibly clear, and flowing straight from the spring that gives birth to the famed Current River, it is the kind of water that stops you in your tracks.
Trout hovered in the current while visitors lined the banks, hoping to hook the fish that’s made Montauk a destination for generations of anglers.
Gretchen Steele: The best of both sides of the river at Missouri’s Montauk State Park Read More »
For many Illinois hunters, anglers, birdwatchers, and outdoor enthusiasts, the local library may not be the first place that comes to mind when planning a fishing trip, researching wildlife habitat, identifying a mushroom, or preparing for hunting season.
Thanks to a new statewide initiative announced by Illinois Secretary of State and State Librarian Alexi Giannoulias, that may soon change.
New digital library opens doors for Illinois outdoorsmen Read More »
I feel like the title above needs a qualifier. Like everything else this year, what I commonly associate with mid-June down here in the hills and hollers of southern Illinois has been happening early. Generally about two to three weeks early.
It’s confounding for someone like me, who has taught young people not to rely on a calendar but rather to listen to the woods and look around you.
Gretchen Steele: June has become ‘the season between seasons’ Read More »
There is something deeply satisfying about a field guide that feels as though it belongs in the glove box of a pickup truck, tucked beside a pair of binoculars, coffee-stained from use, and carried often enough that the corners soften with time.
Gretchen Steele: Reviewing the new ‘Field Guide to Illinois Mammals’ Read More »
By mid-May in southern Illinois, the countryside no longer feels gentle; it presses in close, demanding attention and resilience from those who venture out. April is a flirt. May is a commitment.
The woods that just weeks ago felt airy and forgiving now press in close, green and insistent. Trails blur at the edges.
Gretchen Steele: May in southern Illinois an example of ‘give and take’ Read More »
There’s a moment each spring in southern Illinois when the woods stop belonging to winter and start belonging to wings.
It doesn’t happen all at once. There’s no grand announcement, no clean turning of a page.
Gretchen Steele: Spring migration a magical time in southern Illinois Read More »
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