The Chicago Wilderness Alliance is a regional collaborative of hundreds of partner organizations and individuals working to implement landscape-scale approaches to conservation in and around the southern shores of Lake Michigan including members from Southeast Wisconsin, Northeast Illinois, Northwest Indiana, and Southwest Michigan.

We bring leaders, experts, and mid-career and young-career conservation professionals together to share diverse voices and perspectives and to work toward a common vision: creating and protecting a vibrant, accessible region where people and nature thrive. 

Our region is home to a spectacular assemblage of rare ecosystems and diverse plant and animal species. Our collective efforts using science and data-driven approaches to restore, manage, and protect natural areas contributes to a more climate resilient region. This work is more urgent than ever as climate change increasingly threatens human health, quality of life, food security, economies, and biodiversity.

The Alliance focuses on landscape-scale efforts across the southern Lake Michigan region because nature needs connections across all geopolitical boundaries. Working together, Alliance partners identify conservation priorities; develop and implement long-term regional conservation plans; and collectively enhance, elevate, and celebrate our individual partners’ work, all at the regional scale. 

Our Green Vision Initiatives

The Green Vision Initiatives are a centralized framework to guide, track, and implement progress toward a common vision and an inclusive approach to thriving nature for people and wildlife. The executive order issued by President Biden to conserve 30% of land and water by 2030 sparks renewed momentum. 

In the largely urbanized areas of the four-state Chicago Wilderness Alliance region, the capacity to deliver on the 30 x 30 goals will come not just from traditional conservation lands and waters, but from activating every land type — agricultural, residential, corporate — to contribute meaningfully to landscape-scale conservation.  

Our Green Vision Initiatives include seven key thematic areas: conserving and managing healthy landscapes and protecting water; regenerative agriculture; green infrastructure; increasing access to nature, and taking climate action. All goals are centralized using a mapping tool that empowers regional partners to visualize, share and track progress. Each theme is brought to life by teams that provide opportunities for the Alliance to engage, contribute and collaborate on our shared goals.

Publications

View our Annual Reports, Publications, and monthly enewsletters.

Alliance Statement on Equity and Justice

The Chicago Wilderness Alliance values the diversity inherent in the ecological and human communities that it serves. to fulfill our mission, we work to be inclusive of all people regardless of age, race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, family status, spirituality, education, geographic location, social and economic class, and physical and mental ability. 

Fiscal Sponsor

The fiscal sponsor of the Chicago Wilderness Alliance is the Friends of the Forest Preserves, an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

CWA c/o Friends of the Forest Preserves
411 S. Wells St. STE 800
Chicago, IL 60607-3927
(312) 356-9990
Federal EIN: 36-4519273

Download a copy of the W-9 form for the Friends of the Forest Preserves.

Policies and Procedures

Download our 2024 Policies and Procedures document (pdf).

Donate

The Chicago Wilderness Alliance continues its mission thanks to the support and generosity of donors and partners. Online donations are quick and easy using our secure credit card transactions. We welcome donations of all sizes and payment plans, whether it's a one-time gift, a monthly contribution, or part of a matching gifts program.

Donate online.

Contact Us

Laura Reilly, Managing Director, Chicago Wilderness Alliance 
Laura.ReillyCW@gmail.com