EPA, Chicago Wilderness Announce Native Landscape Awards

CHICAGO, Ill. – In a special partnership, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 5 and Chicago Wilderness announced the winners of their sixth annual Conservation & Native Landscaping Awards at a Dec. 6 ceremony at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Ill. The awards recognize outstanding efforts to use native plants within the Chicago Wilderness region, which comprises northwestern Indiana, northeastern Illinois and southeastern Wisconsin. Among the award winners are communities and developers that plan and construct residential, commercial or municipal developments in ways that protect the environment and enhance the landscape with native plantings.

“The Conservation & Native Landscaping Awards started as a way to recognize behaviors of designers and developers that were using native plants and conservation design elements,” explains Danielle Green, an environmental protection specialist with EPA and coordinator of the program. Green says the awards program is unique, in that other EPA regions have not had the opportunity to create similar awards. “You really need a strong local partner for this to be successful,” she says. “Chicago Wilderness is a great partner on this project because they do fantastic work to protect the environment around the Chicago area and its surroundings.”

Chicago Wilderness is a coalition of 170 organizations that work to promote, protect and enhance the biodiversity of the region making up the metropolitan crescent around southern Lake Michigan. Green says the group, along with EPA, looked at local governments and park districts in the region when first giving recognition to native plantings and conservation efforts, but expanded the program to businesses and developers because of the landscaping opportunities afforded by their large corporate campuses.

This year’s winners include:

• Village of Villa Park
• St. Charles Park District
• Cary Park District
• Oakbrook Terrace Park District
• Morton Arboretum
• Chicago Botanic Garden
• Chicago and Illinois Departments of Transportation in partnership with the Chicago Park District
• Alps Development
• ComEd
• Motorola
• Abbott
• Madison Club Homeowners' Association
• Harbor Springs Property Owners' Association
• Jack Porter & Associates/ Knickerbocker Properties

"Native plants provide a beautiful, hardy, low maintenance landscape while benefiting the environment," Green says. "Once established, native plants save time and money by eliminating or reducing the need for fertilizers, pesticides, water and lawn maintenance equipment. Natural landscaping also creates habitat for birds, butterflies and other wildlife."

In looking at established native plantings around the region, Green observed this year that, despite an incredible drought over the summer, many native landscapes continued to flourish and bloom without additional water. “There were people who tried planting this year, but it was just too harsh,” Green says. “But if you looked at the native plantings that had established over two or three years, you could really see the benefits they provide.”

In addition to creating landscapes that thrive even in drought situations, Green’s colleague at EPA, Bob Newport, noted a new trend in native plantings among the nominees and winners this year. “A lot of properties use retention ponds for stormwater management and the sides of those ponds are subject to erosion,” Newport explains. “A lot of people have found that using native plants around the ponds has the benefit of anchoring soils and reducing erosion, and also deters geese, which can be a nuisance.”

24 entrants participated in this year’s Conservation & Native Landscape Awards – an increase in participation from previous years, Newport says. Nomination forms for next year’s program will be available in the spring, with entries allowed into the summer, followed by judging in late summer and early fall. Landscape professionals interested in participating in the 2006 awards program can learn more by visiting www.chicagowilderness.org or www.epa.gov/greenacres.