Parkway Corner Initiative Video

This short video (without music or sound) was created for Laurel Ross when presenting a ”TED style” talk with photos showing how people are making a difference in restoring health to natural areas in the Chicago region on three scales:  in the entire metro region (Chicago Wilderness); at a forest preserve site on the far southside (Beaubien Woods); and on parkway corners in a neighborhood (Northcenter Neighborhood Association). Restoration in our region has been led by small grassroots groups and people of all backgrounds. Large institutions have followed their lead.  

Her next presentation that will include the Parkway Corner Inititative, will take place at the Great Lakes Bioneers Chicago on Sunday November 4th, 4:00-4:30

Urban Conservation and Biodiversity Is Right Around the Corner

Photo by: Sarah Tilotta

By Patty Wetli

To the untrained eye, the Northcenter Neighborhood Association’s Parkway Corners Initiative appears to be little more than a beautification effort, swapping out turf for pretty plants and flowers. To Laurel Ross, Urban Conservation Director at the Field Museum, it looks like part of a biodiversity recovery plan.

“A lot of conservation focuses on the protected areas,” said Ross, who also works with the North Branch Restoration Project. “Those are all very much islands.” In linking NBRP with Parkway Corners, the goal is to connect those islands and create a corridor of friendly habitats for birds, butterflies, bumblebees and bats in between traditional preserves. In that vein, think of street corners like rest areas along the highway.

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Special Event with Speakers Rinda West and Laurel Ross

Rinda West

Laurel Ross

Wed. May 2, Revere Park Field House, Special Event, 7 pm.  NNA's Environmental Committee will host speakers Rinda West (Rinda West Landscape Designs, http://rindawestdesigns.com) and Laurel Ross (Urban Conservation Director, Environmental and Conservation Programs - Field Museum) who will talk about:

• the advantages of gardening with native plants
• where to plant native plants in your home garden or public parkways
• how to identify native plants
• and, conservation efforts taking place throughout the Chicago region

This is an event not to be missed!

NNA's Greening of Northcenter Neigborhood is ready to break ground on its second year of the Parkway Corner Initiative. 

If you live within the borders of NNA and you are interested in turning your corner into a beautiful, urban, native plant ecosystem then please visit our website to learn more. PARKWAY CORNER INITIATIVE Spring is right around the corner and only 14 corners will be chosen for the 2012 planting, so APPLY NOW!

Next upcoming Environmental Committee meeting - March 7th part two of "New Initiative" meeting at Paul Revere @7pm. Bring in your new ideas, however large or small!

Questions? Email us at greenblog@northcenterneighborhood.org.

NNA's Partnership with North Branch Restoration Project

The Northcenter Neighborhood Association would like to announce their newly created partnership with the North Branch Restoration Project!

As part of the Greening of Northcenter Neighborhood, the Environmental Committee has joined forces with  the North Branch Restoration Project (NBRP), on their latest project, The Parkway Corner Initiative. This initiative aims to restore public land within the Northcenter Neighborhood Association's  (NNA) borders back to native plant systems, corner by corner. With the help of residents living near these corners,  these native plant areas will create forage for our wildlife, help to absorb rainwater near catch basins, and function as a way educate our neighbors and our children about the importance and history of Chicago's very own native plants!

The Parkway Corner Initiative will be the first truly "urban native plant initiative" within NNA's borders.  Soon, all members of NNA will receive an email listing the details and requirements to be a part of this exciting project.  Although the parkways will not be registered as natural prairies, or woodland ecosystems like many of the areas NBRP manages, this is a beautiful meeting of humans and native plants thriving together.

For those of you who do know The North Branch Restoration Project,  they are a group of dedicated citizens who have worked to help protect and restore native Illinois ecosystems in forest preserves and other public lands along the North Branch of the Chicago River since the 1970's. With over a dozen or so management sites they are among the finest natural areas in the county! 

For more information on the North Branch Restoration Project,  please visit:  http://northbranchrestoration.org

Environmental Committee meetings take place on the first Wednesday of the month, 7 pm at Paul Revere Fieldhouse.

      January 4 (CANCELED)

      February 1st and March 7th  (NEW INITIATIVES DAY)

Have you been wanting to join NNA's Environmental Committee? Then all that is required it that you become a member. http://www.northcenterneighborhood.org Do you have an idea or want to lead your own initiative? Then February 1st and March 7th is for you! Join NNA's Environmental Committee and present your ideas!

The Bridge between NNA's Garden Walk & Environmental Committee 2011

NNA gardeners celebrate the first completed Parkway Corner

All things are possible in the Northcenter Neighborhood! This year the Garden Club stepped up to do their part by embracing several of the Environmental Committee's initiatives. Proving once again that residence of the Northcenter Neighborhood Association are “home to many progressive and forward-thinking families who are committed to lives that make a small footprint on the earth’s resources.”

Here are the numbers on the successes of this years Garden Walk…

5th ANNUAL GARDEN WALK

44 Gardens participated in this year’s garden walk

250 maps were handed out!

GARDENERS THAT PARTICIPATED IN THE GREEN LAWN INITIATIVE

6 registered their gardens as TRANSITIONAL

3 registered their gardens as ORGANIC

2 registered their gardens as BIODYNAMIC

GARDENERS THAT PARTICIPATED IN THE PARKWAY INITIATIVE

The 1st corner was completed in time for this years garden walk (SW corner of Hamilton and Byron) The corner was designed by Rinda West, maintained by Mercedes Prause and sponsored by NNA)

GARDENERS THAT PARTICIPATED IN THE BEE TRAIL

21 registered as BEE FRIENDLY

GARDENERS THAT CERTIFIED THEIR BACKYARDS AS WILDLIFE HABITATS

3 certified their backyards as a WILDLIFE HABITAT  

A special thanks goes out to Karen Carter-Lynch and Julie Hobert for all their support in helping to build this bridge!

The Hidden Beauty of Pollination

A truly inspiring TED video about pollination, which truly manages to picture the beauty of nature and the importance of the service provided by pollinators. Louie Schwartzberg is an award-winning cinematographer, director and producer who captures breathtaking images that celebrate life. This video provide amazing scenes from Schwartzberg Wings of Life movie.

Parkway #1 Complete

Top Left: Before - Right: After

THE MISSION
To create pollinator friendly parkway corner landscapes using native plant sources to create a colorful array of pesticide free, bee's, birds, butterfly and even bat friendly landscapes.

Native plants are deep-rooted plants and will also help to absorb rainwater deep into the soil versus short rooted plants/grass which have very short roots systems. Native plants can also withstand a large range of wet-to-dry conditions making these corners requiring very low maintenance.


THIS CORNER
Designed by Rinda West. 
Sponsored by Northcenter Neighborhood Association
Maintained by Mercedes Prause
Worker bees included Green Kenny and Scott, the neighbors surrounding Hamilton & Byron, Elizabeth Wenscott and Mercedes Prause.

PLANT LIST
Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle'
Columbine - Aquilegia canadensis
Wild Petunia   Ruellia humilis
Black Eyed Susan - Rudbeckia hirta
New England Aster - Aster novae-angliae
Woodland Aster - Aster divaricatus
Wild Geranium - Geranium maculatum
Husker Red Penstemon 
Evening Primrose - Oenothera macrocarpa
Penn Sedge - Carex pennsylvanica
Prairie Dropseed Grass - Sporobolus heterolepis
Purple Coneflower - Echinacea purpurea
Beebalm - Monarda fistulosa

Spring has Sprung and WE are going Greener

With the start of the gardening season and the Garden Walk just around the corner (June 26th) now is the time to consider going a little or a lot greener!


The Northcenter Neighborhood Association has created an Environmental Committee, and members of that committee, have come of with a few initiatives that we hope will tie in with members of the Garden Club!

The Green Lawn Initiative
Is an initiative to create a coalition of gardeners, neighbor - by neighbor, that are committed to creating beautiful green lawns for all (wildlife, pets, children etcetera). Once a coalition of committed gardeners grow in numbers we will be able to

• obtain eco-friendly lawn services at a discount;
• affect the products and techniques used in Northcenter;s parks and public spaces; and
• ensure a clean soil and water supply for our health.

If you live within NNA's borders, register your yard with us and receive a corresponding sign to position on your lawn. For those of you that participate in the NNA's Garden Walk let show your commitment to a healthier, greener garden! Join by emailing us at greenblog@northcenterneighborhood.org and let us know what kind of lawn you have.

Organic
Organic gardening incorporates the entire landscape design and environment to improve and maximize the garden soil's health, structure, texture, as well as maximize the production and health of developing plants without using synthethic commercial fertilizers, pesticides, or fungicides.

Biodynamic
Biodynamic gardening is a method of organic gardening that treats the landscape as a unified and individual organisms, emphasizing balancing the holistic development and interrelationship of the soil, plants and animals as a self nourishing system without external inputs. As in organic gardening, artificial fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides are strictly avoided. Methods using fermented herbal and mineral preparations are applied according to the astronomical sowing and planting calendar.

Transitional
Transitional gardening means the gardener/s have chosen to adopt either Organic gardening methods or Biodynamic gardening methods. It takes 3 years for a garden to heal from conventional gardening practices to a healthy vibrant organic garden, hence the name, Transitional.

Parkway Corner Initiative
Is an initiative to create pollinator friendly parkway corner landscapes using native plant sources to create a colorful array of pesticide free, bee's, birds, butterfly and even bat friendly landscapes.

Native plants are deep-rooted plants and will also help to absorb rainwater deep into the soil versus short rooted plants/grass which have very short roots systems. Native plants can also withstand a large range of wet-to-dry conditions making these corners requiring very low maintenance.

If you live within NNA's borders and would like your corner to be beautified with attract native pollinators, email us at greenblog@northcenterneighborhood.org

The Bee Trail Project
The Bee Trail map was created in response to the devestating number of Honeybee losses since 2006. The goal of the Bee Trail Project is to protect the Honeybee (and all other native pollinators) by having as many households gardens, public spaces, schools... within 3 mile radius of a recognized hive and make those spaces bee friendly.

NNA members, gardner, beekeeper, Elizabeth Wenscott and Lisa Hish have created a unique opportunity for its residence. Both have agreed to allow our residence to be the first go "get of the map" before it goes national. For more information of The Bee Trail Project, please visit www.thebeetraiil.org

ALSO DID YOU KNOW that Chicago is pushing to be the first major city in the U.S. to be certified as wildlife habitat friendly (food, water, cover, and places to raise young) through the National Wildlife Federation? To accomplish this goal Chicago need 1,000 residence, local schools, churches or businesses to get certified.  Gethsemane Gardens has teamed up with the NWF and is ready to help us if needed. For more information go to http://www.gethsemanegardens.com/category_s/88.htm

These are exciting times in the Northcenter Neighborhood and we hope that spring will inspire to carry through with "Big Ideas or Little Acts."