Chicago Area Governments and Corporations Honored for Natural Landscaping Projects 5/7/2004
From: Karen Thompson of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 312-353-8547 News Advisory: WHO: Sponsored by EPA Region 5 and Chicago Wilderness. Hosted by the Chicago Park District. WHAT: Will recognize 13 Chicago-area governments and corporations at an outdoor awards ceremony. Winner list follows. WHY: For their extensive and creative use of natural landscaping to support native plants and animals that contribute to the Chicago area's biodiversity. WHERE: Jackson Park Lagoon's Wooded Island, directly south of the Museum of Science and Industry. WHEN: Tuesday, May 11 at 2:30 p.m. DIRECTIONS: Driving south on Lake Shore Drive: turn right at the traffic light after 57th Street onto Science Drive. Stay to left (Columbia Drive). Driving north on Lake Shore Drive: turn left at traffic light after Hayes Drive onto Science Drive. Stay to left (Columbia Drive). Park in Music Court parking lot. --- 2004 Natural Landscaping Winners: Local governments -- Crystal Lake Park District - Sterne's Fen, a 180-acre rare wetland that was restored by removal of invasive species and controlled burns. Only 142 acres of fen wetlands survive in the entire state. Sterne's Fen supports 191 native plant species including 10 that are endangered or threatened. -- Chicago Park District - Jackson Park Lagoon restoration is a 3-year, $3.5 million project with goals of ecological balance, preservation of the historic Olmsted landscape and accommodating contemporary visitor use patterns. Winding pathways and recycled boardwalks guide visitors through 45 acres of native oak, plum and hawthorne trees, and shorelines restored with native wetland plants. -- Lake County Forest Preserve - Independence Grove in Libertyville, at 1100 acres, is on the banks of the Des Plaines River and one of the largest native landscapes in the Chicago area. It features a 300-acre outdoor recreation and environmental education area, an ambitious reclamation of a former sand and gravel quarry. The preserve includes a 115-acre lake, over seven miles of trails, a swimming beach, marina and a visitor center with native gardens and a lakefront plaza. North of the lake is the 75-acre St. Francis Woods, one of the highest quality pre-settlement forests in Lake County. -- City of Chicago - Center for Green Technology is a former dump from which 600,000 tons of construction and demolition debris was cleared. The rehabilitated brownfield is now home to an environmentally sustainable educational facility surrounded by aesthetically pleasing and biologically diverse landscape. The site features native prairie, savanna and wetland plants that attract many species of native birds, butterflies and wildlife. -- Village of Park Forest - Central Park Wetland Restoration Project, with the assistance of three grants, has turned a swamp into a 45-acre wetland bog right in the center of the community. Other valued activities in the plan include reestablishing native species, restoring natural biodiversity (from turf grass), promoting conservation awareness and better filtration of storm water. -- Village of Frankfort - Prairie Park projects have restored 8 acres of native tall grass prairie, 4 acres of wet prairie, and a 2-acre fishing pond with an emergent shoreline. A storm water treatment train is made of natural swales, rocky streams, stilling pools, sediment basins and natural aeration systems. Over 150 species of native flowers and grasses thrive in the park. -- Village of Vernon Hills - Village Hall Complex water detention pond and grounds were stabilized with native plantings and grasses and have become a habitat for migratory birds. The natural landscaping is a model for potential developers in the area. Corporate -- Universities Research Association - Fermilab Main Injector Mitigation Project in Batavia is a 10-acre wetland reconstruction. When a large building project destroyed wetlands in 1993, a plan was set in place to rebuild them. The result is a combination of forest and sedge meadow wetland that is home to many uncommon bird and butterfly species. -- Coffee Creek Watershed Conservancy - Coffee Creek Watershed Preserve in Chesterton, Ind., is a 167-acre natural area that contains a variety of unique habitats in various states of quality, including mesic woodlands, beech bluffs, oxbow wetlands, seeps, marsh, flood plain, pasture and Coffee Creek. An intense restoration effort over the past seven years has brought back to life a piece of native Indiana. -- ConopCo Realty & Development, Inc. - Sears Prairie Stone in Hoffman Estates is the world headquarters of Sears Robuck and Co. and a business park nestled between two large Cook County forest preserves. Natural landscaping provides beauty, habitat and low maintenance on the property that is home to hundreds of birds, amphibians, reptiles, mammals and insects. -- Prairie Sun Consultants - Prairie Sun in Naperville began with just one native plant on the property. Since then more than 300 different native species of trees, shrubs, vines, prairie grasses, wildflowers, ferns and woodland flowers have been planted. The flora draws hundreds of different species of birds and insects. -- Butterprint Farm Rural Wildlife Preserve - An old, historic farm in Monee, Ill., is being naturally rehabilitated by naturalist Bill Banks and wife Diane. Twenty-one acres of farmland are planted in pumpkins, corn and cereal rye while the rest is devoted to native woodland and prairie plants. Public education programs commence every October. -- Fuller Park Community Development - Eden Place Nature Center, 43rd Place and Stewart Avenue in Chicago, is a doorway to the world of nature for Southside residents. Its 3 acres provide a live simulation of a bio-diversified environment exploring the mechanics of a wetland, prairie and woodland teeming with flowers and wildlife native to Illinois. |