Since 2019, Woods to Wetlands, LLC (W2W) has been assisting the Nazarus Foundation, a nonprofit organization, with the restoration of various forest preserve sites owned by the Forest Preserves of Cook County. The project sites are located primarily within the Palos Hills, Cook County, Illinois region.

To date, much of the restoration work has occurred at the McMahon Woods and Fen Nature Preserve. The McMahon Woods and Fen Nature Preserve is comprised of stream, marsh, graminoid fen and rivulets, oak savanna and wet mesic woodland habitat harboring a federally endangered subpopulation of the Hine’s Emerald Dragonfly (Somatochlora hineana). Services provided include tree and non-native brush removal, stump herbicide treatment, and ongoing stewardship work during the growing season, with a primary focus of eradicating of reed canary grass (Phalaris arundinacea) and oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus).

Other project sites include Cranberry Slough and Pioneer Woods Forest Preserves. In 2022, W2W staff ecologists were assigned a new project located within Crooked Creek Woods Forest Preserve, with the goal of eradicating a large swath of reed canary grass along the banks of Crooked Creek and within adjacent sedge meadows and wetlands. During May and June, W2W conducted careful foliar spraying and hand wicking herbicide treatments within a six-acre area. The successful removal of reed canary grass is reducing the occurrence of this species spreading downstream into restored natural areas. Additional restoration work is planned for 2023.