Department of Natural Resources
Programs
The ‘Green” department of the Chicago Park District, the Department of Natural Resources (CDNR), was created in 2001 and is responsible for ensuring the quality of the district's 7,300 acres of land. Through enhanced landscape management, staff training and constant high quality maintenance, the department is quickly becoming the benchmark by which many municipal organizations measure the quality of their landscape and gardening.
As a first place Gold Award winner in 2003's Nations In Bloom, an international landscape beautification competition, the department has proven itself as a competitor among the finest in the world.
The department has also won numerous awards including the 2002 and 2003 Conservation and Native Landscaping Award from the United States Environmental Protection Agency and Chicago Wilderness for South Shore Nature Sanctuary and the Jackson Park lagoon rehabilitation; the 2001 Landscape Contribution Award - Associated Landscape Contractors of America; and the Professional Grounds Management Society's 2001 Grand Award.
CDNR manages the District's citywide floral beds, enhanced maintenance sites (including Soldier Field/Museum Campus and Northerly Island), holiday lighting initiatives, Arboretum in the Park sites, forestry operations, nature areas, lagoon restorations, athletic fields and two world-class conservatories.
Some programs the department handles includes:
Keeper of the Park
The goal is to give park patrons a specific staff member to contact about the condition of their park. A Park Keeper develops ownership of their specific parks and works with the community to resolve issues and address their concerns. A sign at the park will identify the name of the park's Keeper and have the hotline number 312/742.PLAY where citizens can leave information for the Keeper. All calls will be responded to with a postcard and follow up. For more information about this program see the In The News icon.
Clean & Green
Every year the Park District participates in Mayor Daley's Clean & Green initiative working with volunteers and organizations on one day spring cleaning events around the city. The day, designed as a program to get community members involved in their neighborhood and parks, may include flower and tree planting, painting, sweeping, and trash collection.
Sheriff's Work Alternative Program
SWAP uses misdemeanor offenders to perform community service as the result of court imposed sentences. Under the direct supervision of specially trained Sheriff's personnel, offenders provide a variety of landscaping duties for the Chicago Park District, such as mulching trees, adding sand and fibar to playlots, picking paper, installing snow fencing and many other well needed services.