Newsletter Tuesday, June 11, 2024
Dear NCH2 Community-
Happy June, 2024! The weather has been spectacular; rainfall abundant for our green and bluescapes; and nature is literally calling (thank you cicada emergence!)
This newsletter will be our only edition in the month of June, so please enjoy reading through all of the upcoming events, new job listings, and news articles. Pausing one edition will, we hope, give you more time to have fun outside--along, with your friends, your family. As you all know, we believe that spending time in NATURE (as long as it is safe and welcoming) is a much-needed dose of prevention for your health and well-being.
If you know of organizations or local governments who want to add to their tree canopy and are in disadvantaged communities (see article below in Resources), check out the latest release of grant funds from the U.S. Forest Service. Webinar opportunity on 6/18.
Happy June, 2024! The weather has been spectacular; rainfall abundant for our green and bluescapes; and nature is literally calling (thank you cicada emergence!)
This newsletter will be our only edition in the month of June, so please enjoy reading through all of the upcoming events, new job listings, and news articles. Pausing one edition will, we hope, give you more time to have fun outside--along, with your friends, your family. As you all know, we believe that spending time in NATURE (as long as it is safe and welcoming) is a much-needed dose of prevention for your health and well-being.
If you know of organizations or local governments who want to add to their tree canopy and are in disadvantaged communities (see article below in Resources), check out the latest release of grant funds from the U.S. Forest Service. Webinar opportunity on 6/18.
Index
Community Spotlight
Events and Save the Dates
Funding Opportunities and Resources
Job Opportunities
In the News
Connect with Us
Community Spotlight
Events and Save the Dates
Funding Opportunities and Resources
Job Opportunities
In the News
Connect with Us
Helping Hands for Monarchs and other Local Pollinators
Image: Laura Derks
Preparing for National Pollinator Week comes naturally to Claudia Galeno-Sanchez, founder of Mujeres por Espacios Verdes (WfGS). Pictured here, Claudia is one of the region's most energetic advocates for native pollinators and their ecosystems. She works effortlessly to create new and enhanced green spaces in her community (Pilsen) and nearby communities. Note the oak saplings, native pollinator plants, and educational materials pictured here that WfGS distributed.
At Dvorak Park in the Pilsen community in Chicago, this pollinator week celebration included several university-affiliated projects related to green spaces in Chicago, the Chicago Regional Trees Initiative and NCH2. Over 150 attendees came to the event to learn more about excitement how pollination occurs, what Illinois native pollinators are, and the importance of native tree canopy. Mixed in with this helpful information were pony rides, food, activities, monarch tattoos (that's us!), and pollinator plant giveaways.
WfGS is one of the first NCH2 Triple Aim Seed grantees. Claudia has truly turned the seeds of equity, care for the land, and community health into a thriving ecosystem. We are grateful for her vision and energy.
At Dvorak Park in the Pilsen community in Chicago, this pollinator week celebration included several university-affiliated projects related to green spaces in Chicago, the Chicago Regional Trees Initiative and NCH2. Over 150 attendees came to the event to learn more about excitement how pollination occurs, what Illinois native pollinators are, and the importance of native tree canopy. Mixed in with this helpful information were pony rides, food, activities, monarch tattoos (that's us!), and pollinator plant giveaways.
WfGS is one of the first NCH2 Triple Aim Seed grantees. Claudia has truly turned the seeds of equity, care for the land, and community health into a thriving ecosystem. We are grateful for her vision and energy.
Upcoming Events
Image, Brookfield Zoo
Monarch Festival
Join the Brookfield Zoo and the Illinois Monarch Project on June 19 for their Monarch Conference and Celebration featuring "special guest speakers, engaging pollinator talks, informative native plant sessions, fun-filled activities, giveaways and much more!" For more info email us at [email protected].
If you ever see a monarch caterpillar or a monarch butterfly, make sure to register your sighting at journeynorth.org. They map all stages from egg, to pupa, to butterfly to track population trends. Last year a 60 percent decline in monarch butterflies raised even more "red flags" about this endangered species. Become a community scientist by reporting your findings!
Where and When: Brookfield Zoo
When: June 19, 2024 10 AM - 3 PM
Join the Brookfield Zoo and the Illinois Monarch Project on June 19 for their Monarch Conference and Celebration featuring "special guest speakers, engaging pollinator talks, informative native plant sessions, fun-filled activities, giveaways and much more!" For more info email us at [email protected].
If you ever see a monarch caterpillar or a monarch butterfly, make sure to register your sighting at journeynorth.org. They map all stages from egg, to pupa, to butterfly to track population trends. Last year a 60 percent decline in monarch butterflies raised even more "red flags" about this endangered species. Become a community scientist by reporting your findings!
Where and When: Brookfield Zoo
When: June 19, 2024 10 AM - 3 PM
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Kayak at Bubbly Creek: All Welcome
Join Urban Rivers and explore the scenes and wildlife of Bubbly Creek for their free kayak days that connect the local community with this pocket of nature in the heart of the city. No experience required. This program is targeted at the communities directly surrounding Bubbly Creek (Pilsen, Bridgeport, Chinatown, and Mckinley Park), but all are welcome. Children under 10 years old must share a kayak with a parent or guardian. All participants must sign a waiver before kayaking, and/or have a waiver signed on their behalf by a legal guardian. When: Starting June 17, 3:00 - 7:00 p.m. every Monday through the end of September. Rain or shine, with the exception of extreme weather. Where: Park 571 (map) More information here: Community Kayaking at Bubbly Creek! |
Image, Urban River-led trip, Chicago River
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Image, Brushwood website
4th Annual Leadership Roundtable in Waukegan
Join the Brushwood Center in "Building Climate Resilient Communities in Lake County". Community, civic and business leaders and partners from Lake County will convene to "address economic and racial disparities at the intersection of health, the environment, and our changing climate." This interactive session will build on data from the recently released report, Health, Equity, and Nature: A Changing Climate in Lake County, IL.
When: June 26, 8:45- 11:00 a.m.
Where: Eleanor Murkey Community Center, College of Lake County Lakeshore Campus
34 North Sheridan Road, 5th Floor Waukegan, IL
Complimentary Parking Garage: 30 North Sheridan Road
Join the Brushwood Center in "Building Climate Resilient Communities in Lake County". Community, civic and business leaders and partners from Lake County will convene to "address economic and racial disparities at the intersection of health, the environment, and our changing climate." This interactive session will build on data from the recently released report, Health, Equity, and Nature: A Changing Climate in Lake County, IL.
When: June 26, 8:45- 11:00 a.m.
Where: Eleanor Murkey Community Center, College of Lake County Lakeshore Campus
34 North Sheridan Road, 5th Floor Waukegan, IL
Complimentary Parking Garage: 30 North Sheridan Road
Funding Opportunities and other Nature Resources
Image, Columbus Park, Chicago's West Side, Laura Derks
Tree Equity Grant Opportunity for "Disadvantaged Communities" (as defined in the grant)
The U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service has announced another grant funding opportunity for projects to "enhance urban and community forestry in nature-deprived populations and disadvantaged communities." This request for proposals (RFP) provides funding assistance to nonprofits, government entities, and other eligible groups described in the RFP. All projects must occur in and directly benefit disadvantaged areas. Grant awards are available for a minimum of $25,000 and a maximum of $500,000. For all eligible projects, there is no match requirement. Projects funded through this proposal must directly benefit disadvantaged populations of the community as defined by the Climate and Economic Justice Screening tool, HUD Opportunity Zones, and EPA EJ Screen. To view all eligible areas, please see this map.
Request for Proposals and Application
Webinar about this RFP: The Morton Arboretum’s Chicago Region Trees Initiative will be hosting a virtual informational webinar on Tuesday, June 18, 2024 from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. This webinar will be recorded. Even if you cannot attend, you are encouraged to register so that you can receive a recording of the information session. Register here.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service has announced another grant funding opportunity for projects to "enhance urban and community forestry in nature-deprived populations and disadvantaged communities." This request for proposals (RFP) provides funding assistance to nonprofits, government entities, and other eligible groups described in the RFP. All projects must occur in and directly benefit disadvantaged areas. Grant awards are available for a minimum of $25,000 and a maximum of $500,000. For all eligible projects, there is no match requirement. Projects funded through this proposal must directly benefit disadvantaged populations of the community as defined by the Climate and Economic Justice Screening tool, HUD Opportunity Zones, and EPA EJ Screen. To view all eligible areas, please see this map.
Request for Proposals and Application
Webinar about this RFP: The Morton Arboretum’s Chicago Region Trees Initiative will be hosting a virtual informational webinar on Tuesday, June 18, 2024 from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. This webinar will be recorded. Even if you cannot attend, you are encouraged to register so that you can receive a recording of the information session. Register here.
Image, Harambee Gardens, Laura Derks
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Apply for Chicago’s Community Growers Program
At the beginning of May, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, the Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection (BACP), and program partner agency NeighborSpace, announced that the City’s Community Growers Program was again open for applications. The program offers financial aid and technical support for growing local produce, providing a source of healthy food to communities. Applications will be accepted through June 30. The Community Growers Program will invest $2 million in urban agriculture with the goal to increase food equity in “disinvested” (grant application definition) communities by encouraging urban agriculture sites. The announcement, from Mayor Johnson’s office, quoted Mike Trout, Founder and Executive Director of Young Men's Educational Network (and an NCH2 seed grant recipient) and a Community Growers Program first round recipient: “With the support of the Community Growers Program, a collaborative team of community stakeholders in North Lawndale, called the Garden to Table Pipeline, have brought life back to a 17,000 square foot property that has been neglected for decades!” More about the program and the partners can be found here. |
Image, Laura Derks
Openlands Treeplanters Grant
Openlands' regional goal of restoring and maintaining the tree canopy is focusing on planting new trees in communities with low canopy cover. These communities include Archer Heights, Brighton Park, Chicago Lawn, Gage Park, Garfield Ridge, McKinley Park, New City, South Lawndale, West Elsdon, West Lawn. These neighborhoods are priority areas for Treeplanter Grants. Other neighborhoods in Chicago are also welcome to apply.
According to the Openlands website: "TreePlanters Grants are awarded to people, groups, or organizations that can bring together and coordinate their neighbors to plant 10-40 trees in predetermined locations in their neighborhood." The grant application is relatively simple--check out the application here.
Openlands' regional goal of restoring and maintaining the tree canopy is focusing on planting new trees in communities with low canopy cover. These communities include Archer Heights, Brighton Park, Chicago Lawn, Gage Park, Garfield Ridge, McKinley Park, New City, South Lawndale, West Elsdon, West Lawn. These neighborhoods are priority areas for Treeplanter Grants. Other neighborhoods in Chicago are also welcome to apply.
According to the Openlands website: "TreePlanters Grants are awarded to people, groups, or organizations that can bring together and coordinate their neighbors to plant 10-40 trees in predetermined locations in their neighborhood." The grant application is relatively simple--check out the application here.
Job Opportunities
New
The Chicago Department of the Environment is hiring a Director, Public Affairs. Applications due 6/19.
Environmental Educator with the Lake County Forest Preserves.
Continuing
Communications Associate at the Active Transportation Alliance. Consider applying if "you’re someone with a talent for crafting compelling narratives, distilling key messages, and producing content across a range of platforms"--full-time role, based in Chicago.
Elevate (Energy) is looking to fill many positions including several internships. Look through their career opportunities here.
Faith in Place has several positions open including an Environmental Justice internship and a coordinator.
The Friends of the Forest Preserves has several new positions including Development Director. Learn more here.
A Natural Resource Specialist at the Lake County Forest Preserves. Three-year full-time position.
The Mitchell Museum is searching for a Traditional Gardener and Food Sovereignty Manager. See more here.
The Nature Conservancy Illinois is seeking a summer interpreter to "engage with public visitors at the Emiquon Preserve. See more here.
Openlands has a Forestry Coordinator position open.
Adventure Sports Coordinator with R.E.A.C.H. here (Scroll down, there are several other job openings)
Urban Growers Collective has 5 full-time positions open here. The UGC Internship Program is open and accepting applications---must be 18 and older.
Windy City Harvest is accepting applications for its Apprenticeship program.
Please send us your job openings to be featured!
The Chicago Department of the Environment is hiring a Director, Public Affairs. Applications due 6/19.
Environmental Educator with the Lake County Forest Preserves.
Continuing
Communications Associate at the Active Transportation Alliance. Consider applying if "you’re someone with a talent for crafting compelling narratives, distilling key messages, and producing content across a range of platforms"--full-time role, based in Chicago.
Elevate (Energy) is looking to fill many positions including several internships. Look through their career opportunities here.
Faith in Place has several positions open including an Environmental Justice internship and a coordinator.
The Friends of the Forest Preserves has several new positions including Development Director. Learn more here.
A Natural Resource Specialist at the Lake County Forest Preserves. Three-year full-time position.
The Mitchell Museum is searching for a Traditional Gardener and Food Sovereignty Manager. See more here.
The Nature Conservancy Illinois is seeking a summer interpreter to "engage with public visitors at the Emiquon Preserve. See more here.
Openlands has a Forestry Coordinator position open.
Adventure Sports Coordinator with R.E.A.C.H. here (Scroll down, there are several other job openings)
Urban Growers Collective has 5 full-time positions open here. The UGC Internship Program is open and accepting applications---must be 18 and older.
Windy City Harvest is accepting applications for its Apprenticeship program.
Please send us your job openings to be featured!
In the News
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Introducing the Tree Equity Alliance
Groundwork USA recently announced the Tree Equity Alliance, a partnership among American Forests, Green Latinos, Groundwork USA and One Tree Planted. The group plans to prioritize “tree equity” in historically marginalized communities, where the lack of trees contributes to poor air quality and the lack of green space is detrimental to human health and well-being. Alliance partners will provide supports to cities, nonprofits and community groups. They can help leverage expertise in such things as urban greening, tree planting, community impact, while addressing environmental injustice, and training grassroots advocates. Read more here. |
Image, Merrill Community Garden, Derks
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Image, Laura Derks (How can we portray smell in a nature photo so using a photo piquing the visual sense)
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The ‘Olfactory Pathway’ to Nature and Human Well-being
An article in the May 15 issue of Science Advances suggested that the role of the sense of smell in relation to human well-being is a necessary and emerging study. The article, by Gregory Bratman and several colleagues, looked at olfaction – the sense of smell – from the perspectives of several health, social, and natural sciences. Its purpose, the authors said, was to provide a “conceptual framework that integrates the olfactory pathway into an understanding of the effects of natural environments on human well-being.” Noting that the sense of smell, or olfaction, is unique to each person, the scholars noted it has been undervalued in Western cultures as a sensory pathway for human experience. Four consensus statements emerged, and the authors say it is imperative to pay closer attention to the “complex, rich and prolific” olfactory environment that humans breathe in and smell. Doing so can help provide a better understanding of the relationship of humans with the natural olfactory environments – ranging from such things as potted plants and private gardent to wildernesses and oceans – and lead to better decision-making about what will be built and where. The study concludes, “Understanding more about natural olfactory environments is important not only because of associations with human well-being but also because protecting chemosensory communication is core to protecting nature.” Read this research paper, which describes the research methods, the process of olfaction, the four consensus statements and more. |
Image, Mary Gavin
For Cicada’s Sake, Don’t Mow Yet
The seemingly ubiquitous whine will be around only a few more weeks, and already experts are offering advice on how to help ensure the next generation of cicadas will be healthy when they emerge 17 years hence.
Making urban landscapes more friendly for insects can help keep the present population from dying prematurely, wrote Marnie Shure in a June 7 article for Block Club Chicago: Chicago’s Cicadas Could Use Our Help — And It Starts With The Lawn Mower. Allen Lawrance, curator of entomology at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, says fragmented wooded areas and drastic changes in temperature can affect cicadas’ lives. Ms. Shure notes some of the environmental benefits of cicadas: Their holes aerate the ground; their predators receive nutrients; and they “prune” trees when they lay their eggs in the dead branches that eventually fall.
Conor O’Shea, assistant professor of landscape architecture at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and founder of Hinterlands, suggests small changes that can benefit cicadas and other insects. He says, “Even just transforming small square footage lots in the city can actually have a big impact on creating a habitat for insects, whether it’s cicadas or fireflies or eastern tiger swallowtail butterflies,” according to Shure's article. O'Shea's 2020 Cicada Code proposed changes to the Chicago Landscape Ordinance that would better foster periodical cicadas across the city. Even now, he says, not mowing the grass can provide a cushion for nymphs that fall from the trees. Read more here.
The seemingly ubiquitous whine will be around only a few more weeks, and already experts are offering advice on how to help ensure the next generation of cicadas will be healthy when they emerge 17 years hence.
Making urban landscapes more friendly for insects can help keep the present population from dying prematurely, wrote Marnie Shure in a June 7 article for Block Club Chicago: Chicago’s Cicadas Could Use Our Help — And It Starts With The Lawn Mower. Allen Lawrance, curator of entomology at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, says fragmented wooded areas and drastic changes in temperature can affect cicadas’ lives. Ms. Shure notes some of the environmental benefits of cicadas: Their holes aerate the ground; their predators receive nutrients; and they “prune” trees when they lay their eggs in the dead branches that eventually fall.
Conor O’Shea, assistant professor of landscape architecture at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and founder of Hinterlands, suggests small changes that can benefit cicadas and other insects. He says, “Even just transforming small square footage lots in the city can actually have a big impact on creating a habitat for insects, whether it’s cicadas or fireflies or eastern tiger swallowtail butterflies,” according to Shure's article. O'Shea's 2020 Cicada Code proposed changes to the Chicago Landscape Ordinance that would better foster periodical cicadas across the city. Even now, he says, not mowing the grass can provide a cushion for nymphs that fall from the trees. Read more here.
Connect with Us!
We are taking requests for any upcoming events to be added to future newsletters and our events calendar--You can also submit materials for the next newsletter by emailing [email protected]. Make sure you have accepted our newsletter email so it doesn't wind up in your junk folder!
FOLLOW US on our social media by clicking the icons below!
CREATE your own stories on Instagram and tag @NCH2Network so we can share how you engage with nature; we would love to see them!
EMAIL US and keep us updated on local events, exciting opportunities in the area, or send photos of local nature to be featured on the website.
CONTACT US at [email protected].
We are taking requests for any upcoming events to be added to future newsletters and our events calendar--You can also submit materials for the next newsletter by emailing [email protected]. Make sure you have accepted our newsletter email so it doesn't wind up in your junk folder!
FOLLOW US on our social media by clicking the icons below!
CREATE your own stories on Instagram and tag @NCH2Network so we can share how you engage with nature; we would love to see them!
EMAIL US and keep us updated on local events, exciting opportunities in the area, or send photos of local nature to be featured on the website.
CONTACT US at [email protected].