By Lonnie Morris
In 2022, the DuPage Monarch Project and the Forest Preserve District established a Mapping Project with the goal of identifying the areas in preserves with value for pollinators. Diverse data sets were combined to produce scores on the pollinator value of the plants in each ecosystem unit (eco-unit). An eco-unit is defined as a specific type of plant community, such as a wetland, mesic prairie, or upland forest, and there can be several eco-units in each preserve.
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| Monarch on swamp milkweed. Swamp milkweed provides nectar for many pollinators and is a larval host for monarch butterflies. Photo by Jon Yeater. |
Andrew Cohen, a DuPage Monarch Project volunteer, developed a Pollinator Habitat Dashboard showing the plants in each eco-unit and their combined value for pollinators. The West Chicago Prairie has the highest-ranking eco-unit for pollinators.
The eco-unit rankings are available for future management
decisions in targeting areas for habitat improvements.
The next phase in mapping pollinator habitat will be conducting
field observations for verifying the presence of the plants identified with
pollinator value.
Please follow the link to view the Mapping Project
Presentation, see: here
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