Promoting quality open space in and around Mettawa, Illinois.

Welcome to Mettawa Open Lands Association (MOLA). Mettawa is a small rural village in Lake County, Illinois. MOLA is a community organization which strives to maintain the rural use of land, and encourage the protection of our area’s beautiful public and private open lands. Our efforts include education, community workdays and social events, and collaborations with the Village of Mettawa, local businesses, and other conservation organizations. As a non-profit group, we welcome everyone! Please join us or donate today.

Our activities include Social and Educational Events, and Community volunteer workdays. Some of our recent events have included:

FALL 2014 Festival of Oaks

This Wine and Cheese Party was held at Deerpath Farm on October 5th, 2014, and featured a brief presentation on the Emerald Ash Borer.

SPRING 2014 FORUM: “The Undesireables” (And How to Keep Them Away)

This breakfast forum on Saturday, March 8 2014 featured speaker Jay Womack, the Director of Ecology and Landscape Architecture at WRD Environmental. His lively talk, entitled “Cause and Effect: What Landowners can do to encourage indigenous/desireable wildlife and how inaction can attract pests,” gave attendees valuable information about the roles that deer, coyotes, mosquitos, bats and bees play in our environment, and how land management practices can encourage or discourage various species to visit or reside in our community.

FALL 2013 COMMUNITY WORKDAY

Community volunteer workdays are a part of MOLA’s ongoing efforts to help protect the biological integrity and natural beauty of Mettawa’s open spaces.

Thank you to the volunteers who joined us for the Teasel Workday on Sunday, September 1, 2013. Certain plants are considerered highly invasive, and teasel is one of them. Each plant can produce 1-40 flowers, and the average flower generates 850 seeds. A first year teasel plant produces a long taproot, and a dense, large, rosette of low leaves which smother any plants beneath them by eliminating sunlight. The second year plant sends the tall shoot which produces the bristly seed heads (often be seen along highways in our area). The leaves tend to collect water near the stem, and can also foster mosquito larvae. Mowing teasel tends to exasperate this prickly problem by helping spread the seeds. LEARN MORE

2010 Conservation and Landscaping Award

In January 2011, Chicago Wilderness and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency recognized MOLA and our partners with the 2010 Conservation and Landscaping Award. This honor acknowledges the unique work and partnerships which restored Whippoorwill Farm Preserve (WFP) to a native landscape. WFP partners include:  Village of Mettawa, MOLA, Integrated Lakes Management, Tallgrass Restoration, DePaul University, Steven Christy, HSBC: North America, and Hamilton Partners.