Collaborative Conservation Action Across a Metropolitan Landscape

Since 1996, Chicago Wilderness has leveraged more than $13 million in federal funding and more than $1 million in corporate funding to implement more than 500 collaborative projects to protect, restore and manage the rich natural heritage of the Chicago region. We are making a significant conservation impact in the region, a true testament to the work of our unique alliance and its partners. Recently, we:

• Engaged more than 15,000 families and children in the June 2011 Leave No Child Inside month programs provided by more than 70 partner organizations, with activities designed to connect children to nature and foster a long-term sense of stewardship. This year also marked new offerings for Spanish-speaking families and new program elements for children with special needs.


• Distributed more than 10,000 Leave No Child Inside passports to encourage natural area exploration throughout Illinois and Indiana.


• Established the Teaching Academy, which builds the capacity of high school teachers to incorporate concepts of biodiversity into their environmental education programs.


• Engaged a diversity of individuals and corporate partners in the Chicago Wilderness Corporate Council Day of Service, an annual event that promotes stewardship of the region’s natural resources. This year nearly 200 people, including a number of high school and scout groups, participated at 13 sites across the region.


• Conducted outreach through the Chicago Wilderness Sustainable Watershed Action Team (SWAT)—an innovative partnership that delivers sustainable planning principles at the local, community and regional levels—to communities that expressed a need for technical assistance to strengthen their planning infrastructure (plans and ordinances) in order to promote sustainable development and protect natural resources Most recently SWAT provided technical assistance to the communities of Bannockburn, Campton Hills, Crystal Lake, Lincolnshire, Mettawa and Woodstock, Illinois, as well as McHenry County, Illinois. These areas hold some of the best remnant natural areas in the region, and the County and each of these communities has been progressive in their efforts to protect natural resources.


• Funded the Beyond the Basics conference in September, 2011, to promote green infrastructure protection within local municipalities.


• Aided the development of two major regional comprehensive plans. In a landmark development for the conservation community, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning’s GO TO 2040 Plan for northeastern Illinois, adopted in October, 2010, and the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission’s Regional Comprehensive Plan, adopted in June, 2011 used Chicago Wilderness’ Green Infrastructure Vision as a foundation for creating livable communities.


• Launched a regional, collaborative invasive plant management program: the Northeastern Illinois Invasive Plant Partnership.


• Reached the milestone of more than 1,000 individuals trained through the Chicago Wilderness Midwest Ecological Prescription Burn Training class.


• Created the Urban Forestry Task Force, dedicated to addressing the unique challenges of promoting woodland biodiversity conservation in a metropolitan and suburban environment.


• Were invited to participate in the development of an Upper Midwest and Great Lakes Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC). LCCs are landscape-scale partnerships designed to build organizations’ shared capacity to integrate science, natural resource management and conservation to sustain key fish and wildlife species in the face of climate change and other environmental threats across the continent. Because of our extensive network of partners and long history of conducting collaborative conservation at a regional scale, Chicago Wilderness is uniquely positioned to help create an LCC that will be effective in articulating common goals, identifying conservation priorities, and building shared scientific capacity.


• Received national recognition from the Institute for Conservation Leadership for collaborative conservation that is “creative, visionary and highly effective.” Chicago Wilderness was honored for engaging diverse and non-traditional allies, using creative approaches to advance broad goals, and effecting positive changes through collaboration.