Restoring the Health of Local Nature

Nature offers us many benefits: outdoor recreation, opportunities for learning and discovery, spiritual renewal. Healthy ecosystems also provide us with clean air and water, filter pollution and help control flooding, and provide habitat for native wildlife. As residents of the Chicago Wilderness region, we are fortunate to have access to a large amount of open space and natural areas that have been conserved as part of the growing metropolitan region.

But the lands, waters and wildlife that provide us with so much need our help as well. Two centuries of farming, industry, and urban development have transformed our region’s landscape and local nature faces serious threats:

• Habitat loss and fragmentation
• Invasive species
• Pollution
• Effects of climate change
• Disconnected wildlife populations, leading to a loss of genetic diversity
• People disconnected from nature

Unfortunately, much of our local nature is not in good health. To return local nature to a healthy condition, Chicago Wilderness has developed, funded, and implemented more than 470 collaborative projects to protect, restore, manage and study the natural areas of our region, and to inspire citizens to become stewards of our land and waters. 

Alliance members are actively managing the region’s habitats through controlled burning, removal of invasive species, deer control, seeding of native plant species, and by engaging area residents as volunteer stewards of the landscape. Progress is measured through careful monitoring of plant and animal species by natural resource management professionals as well as citizen scientists — trained volunteers who help gather data on species that in turn helps inform resource management decisions.

It will take many resources to re-establish and sustain the health of the region’s natural spaces, but the organizations working collaboratively in Chicago Wilderness — and the individuals that support them — are up to the challenge.

Get Involved

If you are interested in volunteering, you can spend a few hours one afternoon, or commit time every week or every day. Opportunities abound for people of all skill and experience levels to lend a hand. More details.