Vote Like the Fate of Earth Depends On It!

 By Linda Sullivan

Did you vote for Sierra Club endorsed candidates in 2020? 

If you did, you made it possible for DuPage legislators Terra Costa Howard, Anne Stava Murray, Laura Ellman, Suzy Glowiak, Maura Hirschauer, and Karina Villa to pass a nation-leading climate change law, the Clean and Equitable Jobs Act. Your vote made it possible for them to pass laws regulating coal ash pollution that is contaminating Lake Michigan and drinking water throughout the state, a ban on burning the cancer-causing forever chemical PFAS, and so much more.

If you voted for Sierra Club endorsed candidates, you helped US Congressman Sean Casten get around the stymied Congress and Senate by using the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to promote wind energy and use the military appropriation budget and the budget reconciliation bill to quietly accomplish parts of Biden’s climate agenda that were stalled in the Build Back Better bill.

Or you helped Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi to work across the aisle as cochair of the House Solar Energy Committee with a cochair who is a bedrock conservative from South Carolina to persuade climate skeptics to pass laws promoting solar energy. The importance of Krishnamoorthi’s remarkable ability to talk to conservatives cannot be overstated.

Or you helped Congressman Bill Foster get 75 percent federal funding for the Brandon Road project needed to stop Asian carp from entering Lake Michigan and use his background as a scientist to advance battery storage technology and fund the next generation of clean energy technology.

If you voted for our endorsed candidates, you helped elect DuPage Forest Preserve Commissioners Jeff Gahris and Tina Tyson-Dunne. They have formed an important part of the nucleus that has brought energy sustainability to the Forest preserves, as well as adding miles of trails and amenities for residents of DuPage County to enjoy. 

Your vote matters! These environmental champions won because people like you voted for them, and they are making a difference.

The 2022 election needs you. You can find Illinois Sierra Club’s 2022 endorsed candidates by clicking https://www.sierraclub.org/illinois/2022 . You can find Sierra Club’s Congressional endorsements at https://www.sierraclubindependentaction.org/endorsements

Hiking McHenry County in July

By Marlene Bertolozzi

Photos taken by author.

Having spent a lot of time hiking suburban Chicago, I was surprised to find there are hidden charms scattered around McHenry County. On July 7, we hiked through Pleasant Valley Conservation Area with its somewhat steep forest trails, a small lake, and rolling meadows. 

On July 17 we hiked Marengo Ridge Conservation Area, a favorite of mine. When you arrive, you’ll find spread out before you a panoramic view of summer flowers – bee balm, black-eyed Susan, compass plants, and in the distance the Marengo Ridge stretching across the horizon. In fact, once you know what you are looking at, you can see it as you exit I-90 at Route 23. 

The trails meander through the meadows and then cross over to the woodlands. Flowers everywhere. I have never experienced flowers in the summer in Illinois before. The county also provides a few not very well-kept informational signs, such as the history of wild turkey in the area and a description of the moraine and ridge that make up the area. And to top it all off, beautiful, sunny weather graced our days. Hope to see you on one of these hikes soon!

If You Build It, They Will Come

By Bruce Blake, DuPage Monarch Project, Garden Specialist 

Photos by Bruce Blake

One of the environmental programs the Sierra Club, River Prairie Group, belongs to is the DuPage Monarch Project - https://dupagemonarchs.com. Founded and chaired by Lonnie Morris, the Project is a cooperation among several groups: Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, The Conservation Foundation, Wild Ones-Greater DuPage, and many other municipalities and park districts. Our main purpose is to provide education and to promote increasing Monarch butterflies and their habitat in DuPage County. 

As you may know, Monarch butterflies have been put on the IUCN list as endangered. The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) is a membership Union of government and civil society organizations that work together to advance sustainable development and create a just world that values and conserves nature. Monarch populations have declined by over 80% in the last 20 years. There have been many factors. The large-scale use of herbicides that destroy milkweed - the monarch caterpillar’s sole host plant and only food source during its caterpillar stage - is a driver of the butterfly’s decline. The butterflies are also threatened by neonicotinoid insecticides, fungicides, and other chemicals that are toxic to young caterpillars. Climate change has also affected the migration of monarchs from Mexico. Butterflies, as well as bees and other pollinators, are needed in our food chain. One out of every three bites of food we eat requires pollination!

One of the groups we have partnered with is Immigrant Solidarity DuPage. The Monarch is a very important part of Mexican culture. The return of the Monarchs to their overwintering spot in Michoacan, Mexico, is a special festival. It symbolizes the return of the dead. Working together, we have planted several Monarch pollinator gardens.

One of these is at St. Andrew Lutheran Church in West Chicago. Cristobal Cavazos, of Immigrant Solidarity, talked to Pastor Josh Ebener about doing a Monarch garden on a grass area south of the church. We developed a landscaping plan and presented it to the church. With their approval, we started. The area was roughly 40 feet by 120 feet. We needed to get rid of the sod. We tried covering the grass with tarps over the winter, but that didn’t kill the grass as hoped. We really didn’t want to herbicide. After a long time looking for someone who could remove the top 2 inches of sod so we could plant, we found a local landscaper, Daniel Fuentes, who volunteered to remove the sod and help us with the stonework for the pathway.

Removing the sod.

This was early 2021. After removing the sod, we had 40,000 lbs. of crushed stone ordered for the path foundation. Unfortunately, we couldn’t dump it where we were working, so we had to dump it on the parking lot and use a small trailer to spread it by hand. 

Preparing the path.

Once we had the path outlined, we hand sowed a native seed mix. It was a combination of many different native flowering plants to provide nectar, several types of milkweed, and a variety of tall grasses. All the plants are native to our area. They will provide nectar and a place for butterflies to lay eggs. A large portion of the seeds were collected and donated by members of Wild Ones-Dupage. We put in over 1,200 plants by hand. This was fall 2021.

We have the best volunteers to help us! Many people helped plant, work on the pathway, and weed. Our thanks to Miguel Romero, Mateo Suarez, Robert Cook, Andrew Van Gorp, Gabriela Hernandez Chico, Rafael Vieyra, Cristobal Cavazos, Rocio Hernadez, Patricia and Marti Landry, and Bob Sherman.  Hayley Hawkinson joined us from the West Chicago Garden Club. Without their support and hard work, we couldn’t have accomplished this. The brick pathway is an amazing design and is yet to be finished. The center will have a butterfly done in tile, by a local artist.     

We couldn’t wait for spring 2022 to come! At first, a few plants were coming up, but they were very sparse.

Garden weeding..

It looked promising, but not as many as we hoped for. During the spring and summer of 2022, we worked on the pathway, pulled weeds, and added more native plants. Slowly, the plants took root and flourished. It was amazing how the area filled in.

Finished brickwork and growing plants. 

It will take several years for some of the plants to flower. We need to find volunteers who can help us maintain this beautiful native Pollinator Garden. If you would like to be part of bringing nature back to us, you can reach me at Rllnstns1@aol.com to help.

Looking Back on Recent Progress for Monarchs in DuPage

 By Lonnie Morris

It’s September and the super generation of monarch butterflies is beginning its journey south for the winter.  It’s sometimes called the Methuselah generation because monarchs born in late summer live from September to March, the time needed to migrate thousands of miles to Mexico, then rest for a few months before beginning the trip north in spring.

This is the time for the last monarch sighting of the season. You can see them searching for nectar, riding the wind south, or roosting at night. As the butterflies leave Illinois, let’s take a moment to look back on how their summer stay in DuPage has been made safer and healthier over the past seven years.

Photo by Lonnie Morris

In 2015, DuPage Monarch Project began with a group of concerned volunteers ready to take action to protect monarchs and pollinators. They knew something serious was happening, and local solutions were needed.

It was the same year the population of eastern migrating monarch butterflies was measured at 1.13 hectares. This was an increase from the previous year but still one of the lowest numbers ever recorded. The Center for Biological Diversity had only months earlier filed a petition to protect monarchs as a “threatened” species. They were threatened by a loss of habitat, exposure to pesticides, and more frequently occurring extreme weather events produced by climate change.

The DMP founders adopted engagement, education, and support of new and enhanced healthy habitat as the best approach for saving monarchs. Engagement extended awareness throughout the entire county from Naperville to Elmhurst, education provided the foundation for informed decisions--both needed for more habitat to happen.

In the past seven years, 27 park districts and municipalities have signed resolutions of commitment to providing new or enhanced monarch habitat, and 11 groups became DMP associate members. Their combined efforts have added hundreds of acres of natural areas on public land, along with improving parking lot islands, detention basins, sidewalk planters, and gardens with native species.

Monarch butterflies were woven into West Chicago’s identity and culture through murals, hosting documentary viewings, sponsoring public art exhibits, and planting a garden in the shape of a butterfly. 

West Chicago’s Year of the Butterfly and Elmhurst Cool Cities Coalition’s Start in Your Yard campaign fostered awareness of the importance of biodiversity. Westmont’s No Mow till Mother’s Day launched a new appreciation for how a small change in lawn care can make a major difference for bees. It continues to spark conversations and inspire other communities to offer residents a No Mow May option. Gardens and lawns are now being seen in a new light, as both beautiful and a place where bees and butterflies can thrive.

All of this came about from the dedication of DuPage Monarch Project’s board members and volunteers, many of whom are working quietly behind the scenes. It’s time to give them a shout out and say thanks for making DuPage a haven for monarch butterflies.

DuPage Monarch Project Board

Anamari Dorgan - Director of Community Engagement Services, Forest Preserve District DuPage County

Connie Schmidt - Chair, River Prairie Group of the Illinois Sierra Club

Jim Kleinwachter - Conservation@Home, The Conservation Foundation

Jeanette Goodlow – Membership and Outreach Chair, Wild Ones Greater DuPage

DuPage Monarch Project Volunteers

Bruce Blake - Garden Specialist DMP, Prairie Wind Native Plants: Native American Plants for Home Gardens

Karen Brittain - Volunteer

Andres Ortega - Science Consultant DMP, Ecologist, FPD

Jill Spealman - Educator DMP, Naturalist

Kim White - Educator DMP, Natural Naturalist

Is your community or organization a member of DuPage Monarch Project? Check here. 

Email dupagemonarchs@gmail.com to learn more about joining.

DuPage Air Monitoring Project

 By Jeff Gahris

Air pollution in the United States has been a vexing problem since the EPA was established in 1970. We have seen a substantial improvement in air quality overall, but there are still localized areas where issues persist. Often these are in environmental justice communities.

Can it be that we have this problem in DuPage County? To answer this question the River Prairie Group obtained a portable air sensor to evaluate neighborhood air quality, thanks to a grant from the Illinois Chapter of the Sierra Club’s Conservation Committee.

The Airbeam3 detects small respirable air particles, and is very sensitive at detecting diesel exhaust from train locomotives and vehicles such as trucks. It is not suitable for measuring other pollutants of concern such as formaldehyde, benzene or ethylene oxide that may be present in a given community. Where it shines is in its portability. We can use it in neighborhoods where there are no stationary monitors, thereby finding places that may not be adequately monitored for air quality.

It also appears to be accurate when compared to monitors used by Illinois EPA’s air monitoring network.

We are looking for opportunities to use the sensor in order to document communities experiencing to excessive particulate pollutants. We can loan it out to community groups for this purpose. To learn more, send an email to Jeff Gahris at jgahris@gmail.com. Our goal – healthy air for everyone!

RPG Water Monitoring Project

By Kathleen Fischer

For more than 20 years, Sierra Club River Monitoring Project volunteers have sampled and tested local streams in DuPage County. Currently, three sites on the West Branch of the DuPage River, four sites on the East Branch, two sites on Salt Creek, and four Forest Preserve lakes are sampled and tested periodically throughout the year. This means that volunteer water collectors travel to the sites early in the morning, regardless of the weather, and lower a bucket into the water to retrieve a sample to deliver for testing by volunteer water analysts.

Water collection tools ready for early morning samplng
at Hidden Lake Forest Preserve near Lombard
Photo by Water Collector Caroline Teeter

Testing reveals nutrient levels (phosphate, nitrate, and ammonium), as well as other important values (pH, chloride content, and, at select sites, dissolved oxygen levels). All of these indicators can be tracked over time and downstream to monitor the health of the stream for fish and other living creatures. Beside local impacts, the monitoring results are a guide to evaluating the potential contribution of DuPage County streams to the health of the Des Plaines River, and ultimately the Illinois River, the Mississippi River, and the nearshore waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Over time, this monitoring also can reveal the impacts of urban development (roads, subdivisions, shopping malls, dam building and channel rerouting for flood control, etc.) and practices such as road salting and fertilization of crops and lawns. Sierra Club volunteer water collectors and testers contribute data that otherwise might not be available to the public through its webpage for easy access by citizens, scientists, municipalities, and state and federal agencies. For more details, see river monitoring project  and the links found under “River Monitoring Project” in the menu bar.

Many thanks to these Water Warriors for DuPage County:  

Bob Barbieri

Bruce Beiersdorf

Lynn and Mark Berndt

Mary Ann Ciesla

John Cooper

Patti & Kevin Clower

Joe Dick

Kathleen Fischer

Alison LaBarge

Jill Spealman

Caroline Teter

Judy Toth

Linda Volin

Lisa Warren

Dave Wilderman