There is an explanation for that smoke you’ve seen rising above the forest at McKinley Woods in Channahon.

Officials with the Forest Preserve District of Will County are clearing a 10-acre parcel overrun with a non-native species—black locust trees—and periodically burning the remains on site.

“They’re quite aggressive,” said Bruce Hodgdon, the district’s public information officer. “They tend, over time, to take over a property.”

Hodgdon said the work in McKinley Woods is typical of what forest preserve district employees do in restoration projects around the county, any number of projects going on at any given time. So, there is no need to be alarmed by the smoke in the sky.

He said the district’s contract to remove black locusts at McKinley Woods runs through all of 2013.

“So, the work crew has until the end of the year to get the job done,” Hodgdon said. “They won’t be there every day. Much of it has to do with soil conditions. They need firm conditions to get their equipment into some of the more densely forested areas. Frozen or dry is perfect.

“But, muddy, the kind of conditions that you see as a result of spring rains, that’s no good.”