Be Part of the West Cook Wildlife Corridor

Submitted by Pam Todd Our next Wild Ones meeting, Sunday, August 25 at 2:30 PM, at the Good Earth Greenhouse and Café (7900 W Madison, River Forest), will be the kick off for our Wildlife Corridor. We'll be featuring Ginger Vanderveer with a presentation on Monarch Watch and the beautiful, easy-to-grow plants you can add to your garden to provide habitat for this species - Illinois' state insect - which has suffered severe population decline.

To help you get started - or expand your collection - we'll have local ecotype milkweed plugs available at a reduced price. This is an ideal time to add plants to your garden and give them a leg up before next spring.  Cost will be about $2-$3 per plug, depending on variety.

It's (Almost) Official  Thanks to you, West Cook now has 18 Wild Ones Members. We're in the process of becoming chartered, choosing a permanent meeting place and time, and arranging some great events and speakers for the year ahead. Stay tuned for more information - and if you haven't already joined, visit www.wildones.org today.

Your Talents Are Needed There are so many things we can accomplish together, but we need your help!  Please reply to this email and let us know if you'd be interested in becoming a West Cook WIld Ones board member or occasionally volunteering to help with programs, events, membership, etc.

Coming Soon: A Native Garden Tour Our September meeting will be the native garden event we're putting together for GCC's Green Living and Learning Tour on Saturday, September 28.  Keep up to date on news of this event on the tour page.

First Meeting of West Cook Wild Ones

If you think a landscape should be about more than a lawn of non-native grasses, and want to learn more about native plants, attracting pollinators and birds, and the restoration of natural landscapes, you’re invited to attend the kickoff meeting to form a local chapter of Wild Ones, an organization devoted to creating natural gardens and landscapes using native plants. This first meeting will be held from 2:30-4:30 p.m., Sunday, July 21st, at Green Home Experts, 811 South Blvd., Oak Park, Illinois.

 Local Wild Ones member, Stephanie Walquist will give a butterfly presentation.  She has been gardening for butterflies and rearing/releasing some species over the years. Stephanie has also been assisting in the installation of a native plant garden at Beye School with the hope of getting other schools and local residents to join in to create wildlife corridors.   Plans will also be discussed for future educational programs, seed and plant swaps and field trips.  Anyone interested in gardening and in preserving biodiversity through their landscaping is invited to join the chapter.

Wild Ones members help and learn from each other – beginners and experienced members alike – about identifying native (and invasive) plants, creating natural landscapes, protecting biodiversity and our native pollinators, dealing with “weed ordinances,” and a lot more.

Members learn through monthly educational chapter meetings, field trips, and presentations by experts in the field of native plants and natural landscaping. Chapters are supported by a national organization; each member receives access to handbooks related to natural landscaping along with the regularly published newsletter, the Wild Ones Journal.

For more information – and to let us know you’ll attend – contact Pam Todd (pamtodd5@me.com), Ginger Vanderveer (gingervbrown@gmail.com) or Marni Curtis (sassyspider@gmail.com).

Wild Ones began in 1979, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and was granted non-profit tax- exempt certification in 1995. With 50 chapters, Wild Ones has approximately 3,500 members across the United States and Canada. See website at www.wildones.org.

Those who comtemplate the beauty of the earth . . .

A Reflection by James Babcock

--

I'm starting to get more of an appreciation for many of the old-timers--Aldo Leopold, E.F. Schumacher, Wendell Berry, Herman Daly, Rachel Carson. Looking at where we find ourselves now, they were really quite forward-thinking, and revolutionary, and spot-on with their criticisms of the modern society of the 50's, 60's, and 70's.

--

A friend asked me the other day how I got into the environmental issues. Growing up in California and really enjoying the outdoors--being at the ocean and in the mountains--was a start to an appreciation for nature. But I remember reading Carson and being influenced by her. First 1 or 2 books on the Seas, and then Silent Spring came out. She is a great writer and gave powerful descriptions of the forces of Nature, and how our activities were disrupting the elegant interweavings of natural systems.  I thought of her today when I saw this quote:

"Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts." Rachel Carson, "Sense of Wonder"

--

See related article:  The Lost Woods of Rachel Carson

2013 Green Living & Learning Tour

UPDATE:  PLEASE GO TO OUR 2013 TOUR PAGE FOR ALL TOUR INFORMATION Save the date! Saturday, September, 28th 2013 Green Living & Learning Afternoon Tour & Evening Celebration

The 2013 Green Living & Learning Tour is that kind of occasion that gives us an opportunity to see what our neighbors are doing to make their lives and our community more resilient and sustainable, and a chance to explore what we can do as well.  Join us for an experience of sustainable, resilient community!

GCC-Tour-Logo2013-green-HiRes

In order to make this year's Tour a great event, we need your involvement in one or more of the following ways:

• Write it on your calendar and plan to participate in the tour!

• Give us your ideas for examples of sustainable living that you would like to see included in the tour! Note: It’s okay (even encouraged) to nominate your own home!

• We need volunteers to make this event happen, so if you would like to be part of the tour planning team or if you would like to be a volunteer on the day of the tour, please let us know! Reply to sallystovall@gmail.com or 773-315-1109.

Check out information on last year’s tour on the Green Community Connections web site.

"We can't create a better world if we haven't yet imagined it.  How much better then, if we are able to touch such a world, experience it directly, and even live it if only for a brief moment."  -- Andrew Boyd, Yes! Magazine

Go Native with Wild Ones!

If you’re interested in a great alternative to the all-American lawn and would like to enjoy more birds, butterflies, and other wildlife around your home church, school or park, you will be glad to know that we're organizing a Wild Ones chapter in Oak Park/River Forest.

• Learn from gardeners and native plant experts how you can create natural, beautiful and healthy yards and landscapes
• Reduce pesticides, labor, energy, water use
• Exchange plants and seeds and locate nurseries and sales
• Provide habitat for pollinators, birds, butterflies
• Participate in creating a wildlife corridor of food and shelter for threatened species
• Members plan monthly educational chapter meetings, field trips, and presentations by experts in the field of native plants and natural landscaping. Chapters are supported by a national organization, and each member receives handbooks related to natural landscaping along with a bimonthly publication, the Wild Ones Journal.

Want to know more? Just contact Pam Todd (pamtodd5@me.com), Ginger Vanderveer (gingervbrown@gmail.com) or Marni Curtis (sassyspider@gmail.com).  We're aiming for a mid-July organizational meeting and will be announcing the date, time and place soon, so stay tuned!

Wild Ones is a volunteer organization devoted to helping people learn about the value of landscaping with native plants. By joining with other like-minded people, we can help and learn from each other - beginners and experienced members alike. It began in 1979, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and became a non-profit, tax-exempt corporation in 1990. With approximately 40 active chapters, Wild Ones has approximately 3,000 members across the United States and Canada. See web site at www.wildones.org/.

One Person’s Story: Taking Action Inspired by Film Festival

This is the story of one person’s commitment to action. After her participation in the film festival, Pamela Todd has made a pledge to act, and showcase the belief that we can each make a difference through our actions.

The 2nd annual One Earth Film Festival was a huge success, bringing in over 2,000 attendees. And though we were all able to learn from many great films, one of the primary purposes of the festival is to demonstrate and support“the power of human involvement” to make a difference in the challenges and opportunities before us.

As part of her pledge, Pam has joined Wild Ones, an organization devoted to encouraging the use of native plants in landscaping as a way to increase biodiversity and save species from extinction. She has also volunteered to start an Oak Park area chapter of Wild Ones, and believes we can build a vibrant chapter here in our local community.

When asked why she chose this topic for her action pledge, Pam said, “After watching the Story of Straw at the One Earth Film Festival, I pledged to use more native plants and help inspire others to join the movement. Starting a Wild Ones chapter in the area seemed like the perfect way to do this. It's a group that is devoted to making landscaping with native plants the norm, rather than the exception, in private and public spaces.” Her resolve was doubled after watching “The Call of Life” which highlights the extinction of large numbers of species largely due to loss of their natural habitats.

“By joining Wild Ones, we can connect to, and learn from people who have a passion for native gardening, take field trips, share tips, participate in seed exchanges, and find out where to find hundreds of varieties of native species at low cost park district sales,” said Pam when talking about her vision for the group.

According to the Wild Ones website, the organization has recently partnered with Monarch Watch to launch the Wild for Monarchs Campaign. The Monarch, which coincidentally is the Illinois state insect, is down 50% in population due to habitat loss and climate change. The campaign encourages people to plant common milkweed in their gardens to help reverse the 50% reduction.

Pam and other local “activists” determined to build a more sustainable and resilient community by adopting practices that support a healthy environment will gather at the Oak Park Library on Monday, May 20th, to share ideas and get resources for their individual and community actions. Please join us for that gathering interactive community gathering! (see related article)

If you're interested in connecting with Pam directly about the important work surrounding native plants and gardens, you can email her at pamtodd5@me.com, or meet her at the library on May 20th.