Blake Miller stepped up to the 12th tee at Canal Shores Golf Course, the tops of the trees swaying above him in the soft Saturday morning breeze. Standing about 250 yards in front of him was a group of people gathered around two bonfires, the smell of smoke drifting back to the tee box.

“They’re right in the if-it-doesn’t-cut spot,” Miller joked to his golfmates. As his ball soared into the sapphire sky, it didn’t cut. Even through the buzz of chainsaws, one could make out the thud of the ball hitting Grant Bailey, one of the people standing around the bonfires. 

Bailey is a member of the Lumberjacks of Canal Shores, a group that’s formal enough to distribute custom-printed caps to its members but informal enough to pass around Polar beers while its members work. 

The group is more than 150 strong, and about 80 showed up to celebrate Earth Week on Saturday. It’s largely made up of neighbors who chop down invasive species, like buckthorn and non-native vines, along the shores of the canal every weekend. The Lumberjacks of Canal Shores also built about 1.7 miles of hiking trail along the course. And, according to many, lumberjacking is a way to reclaim space in their community.

“It’s like guerilla ecology,” Bailey said, tossing a branch into the fire.

‘Get the buck out’

Hang around the lumberjacks long enough, and you’ll hear their rallying cry.

“Get the buck out!” cheered Joanna Nachman (SPS ’17). Saturday was her first time with the lumberjacks, but she already learned the call.

The slogan refers to buckthorn, an invasive species of small tree that snakes up the banks of the canal. It’s so thick in some places, especially next to invasive vines, that the workers can barely see the water.

“These vines will just choke out everything in these little woods … they’re like snakes,” said Patrick Hughes Jr., the de facto leader of the lumberjacks though he shies away from that label both in concept and in practice

This iteration of lumberjacks started mobilizing early during the pandemic when Hughes Jr. called a handful of neighbors to help remove a downed tree on the 11th hole. But, the original lumberjacks aren’t his creation; Hughes Jr. said he learned from friends who had cut down invasives for years before he joined.

And though Hughes Jr. took the mic to inaugurate this year’s Earth Week event, many different people are involved in the work. Over time, they’ve developed their own specialties.

Bailey, Scott Nelson and Ross McLean came with thick clothes to lead the group feeding fires to dispose of buckthorn on Saturday.

And one weekend, Drury Davis found himself splitting firewood. He’s stayed at the splitting machine almost every weekend since.

“Don’t get in between Drury and his log splitter,” Hughes Jr. joked to the crowd.

Others spent the entire day watering a nursery of native plants the lumberjacks started a couple years ago. The group is ready to replant the natives in the place where buckthorn used to dominate.

The lumberjacks don’t need a leader, Hughes Jr. said. They’re working towards a common goal. For Hughes Jr., the goal is  birds and butterflies diving in between native trees on the canal shore. And, of course, people there to enjoy them.

“Just sort of the community engaging, appreciating a better natural setting than what’s here today,” he said.

A Niche for Everyone

There’s a set of unwritten rules at Canal Shores, said Mike O’Connor, who sat on its board for over a decade. Golfers play from the first hole to the 18th. Dogwalkers move from the 18th to the first. That way, walkers can avoid errant shots.

Canal Shores is a place in constant negotiation, where different people use the space for different uses, each needing to look out for one another.

“It’s like a delicate dance,” Hughes Jr. said.

O’Connor doesn’t remember Canal Shores as the golf course of his youth. Instead, he remembers it as the place where he watched Wilmette shoot Fourth of July fireworks when he was young. When the fireworks show would finish, he’d turn his chair around to watch Evanston’s light up the distant sky.

Now, he hears teenagers shoot off their own fireworks on the course. Officially, O’Connor doesn’t condone the practice. But it’s been an Evanston rite of passage since he was young, he said with a smile.

It’s easy to think of the lumberjacks as stewards of the golf course. But they don’t see themselves as such. Most of them don’t even play golf.

Hughes Jr. has dedicated his professional life to helping businesses create accessible infrastructure for people with disabilities. But halfway through building a trail alongside Canal Shores, Hughes Jr. said he realized the 2-foot-wide path couldn’t accommodate the very people he helped professionally.

After conversations with people with disabilities, the lumberjacks rebuilt the trail to 5 feet wide. Hughes Jr. said it’s part of the lumberjacks’ larger mission to open up a space that previously had an element of exclusivity.

“(People) don’t know how to access this. Ross literally lives four houses away and only saw this as a golf course,” Hughes Jr. said. “This is not your place … until somebody welcomes you and says ‘this is your place.’”

In a way, the Lumberjacks have helped make Canal Shores a more inclusive place. Miller, the golfer, and Bailey, the lumberjack he’d just hit with his golf ball, chuckled to each other as Miller chipped onto the green. Bailey turned back to his fire.

The course is like an ecosystem for Bailey — he said each person has their own “ecological niche.”

“There’s space for everyone here,” he said.

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @charcole27

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