Author: Wendy Vernon

Wild Ones Greater DuPage Chapter member Mike MacDonald and creator of Chicago Nature Now! has an exciting big screen immersive exhibition going on right now at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum until the end of August. On June 24th, at 2:00 pm he will be performing My Love Affair with Chicago Nature in Pictures, Poetry, […] Continue reading "My Love Affair with Chicago Nature in Pictures, Poetry, and Prose"

The DuPage Monarch Project, The Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, and the Sierra Club River Prairie Group are sponsoring a free class “Meet Nature Neighbors With iNaturalist” on Thursday, June 1st at 6:30 pm. This class which will teach you how to use iNaturalist to identify plants, bees, butterflies, and other pollinators. Using iNaturalist […] Continue reading "Meet Nature Neighbors With iNaturalist"

Join Benjamin Vogt from Monarch Gardens weekly starting on Thursday 2/16 at 1pm cst (webinars will be recorded) for a three-part series on converting from lawn to meadow landscapes. Each linked webinar can be taken individually or as a discounted whole, and serve as in introduction to some of the most pressing issues suburban gardeners […] Continue reading "Unlawn America Webinars Presented by Benjamin Vogt and Hosted by Monarch Gardens March 16th, February 23rd, and March 2nd"

The Wild Things 2023 Conference invites nature enthusiasts from across Illinois and beyond to learn about the flora, fauna, and natural history of the Prairie State! Join a community of 3,000 volunteers, conservationists, and natural resource professionals at the 2023 Conference to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Illinois Nature Preserves. The 2023 Conference takes […] Continue reading "Register for the Wild Things February 25, 2023 Conference"

Pat Armstrong has just received late notice of the imminent destruction of the Pizzo-Planted FlowerHill Prairie at Calvary Church, located on the northwest corner of Route 59 and Montgomery Road (called 83rd Street east of Route 59, in Naperville.) Bulldozers are supposed to arrive sometime in the next week or two — SO WE NEED […] Continue reading "Emergency Prairie Rescue at Calvary Church in Naperville!!"

Learn more about how reintroducing bison to prairies doubles plant diversity and boosts resilience to extreme weather from Treehugger’s September 26, 2022 article, Plant Diversity Booms When Bison Return to the Prairie. Bison have been introduced to help with prairie restoration in Illinois at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie in Wilmington and at Nachusa Grasslands in […] Continue reading "Plant Diversity Booms When Bison Return to the Prairie"

Susan and Ronald Kopczynski have been working as volunteers with The Conservation Foundation and with The College of DuPage Horticulture Department to design and install native prairie and rain gardens at the Waldorf School of DuPage in Warrenville, IL since spring. This has been an all volunteer project. The labor, the plants and even the […] Continue reading "Plants Needed for Volunteer Eco Gardens at The Waldorf School of DuPage"

Click here to learn more about an exciting new native pollinator garden at St. Andrew Lutheran Church in West Chicago that was created as a community effort by the DuPage Monarch Project, Immigrant Solidarity DuPage, Sierra Club River Prairie Group and several other individuals and groups. This garden will help provide much needed habitat for […] Continue reading "If You Build It They Will Come – New Native Pollinator Garden at St. Andrews Lutheran Church in West Chicago – Volunteers Needed!"