Chicago Park District Awarded Grant for Rare Natural Area
IDNR Awards Grant to Chicago Park District’s Montrose Beach Dunes
Release Date: 04/03/07
The Chicago Park District was awarded a $56,000 grant for restoration work at Montrose Beach Dunes from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. The Conservation 2000 (C2000) grant is aimed at conservation work thatprotects, preserves, and enhances biodiversity and Illinois' natural heritage.
The C2000is a two-year matching grant that will cover major invasive specieswork, updating ofinterpretive signage, astabilization planting on the upper beach, and a new dune protection fence.This is the first time the Chicago Park District received such a grant for a natural area.
“We are very pleased to receive this grant which will further help us protect and restore our natural areas,” said Timothy J. Mitchell, the general superintendent of the Chicago Park District. “Montrose Beach Dunes is an inspiring example of a beautiful, healthy slice of nature in the urban landscape.”
To further protect and preserve the area, the Chicago Park District andthe City approved the addition ofone more acre toMontrose Beach Dunes.The newareais just west of the current dune protection fence and includes shoreline and a panne habitat, a wet depression in a dune/swale ecosystem. According to Debra Nelson, Heritage Biologist with the Illinois Department of Nature Resources, panne habitat is critically imperiled in the state of Illinois, meaning it is an extreme rarity with five or fewer occurrences.
“Montrose Beach Dunes is a very unique area,” Nelson said. “Rare plants have been emerging in the areafor a number of years now. A dedicated steward, Leslie Borns, the Park District and the City are helping to nurture the area to a more natural habitat.”
Montrose Beach Dunes, a 9.25-acre site located at the east end of MontroseBeach, the city’s largest. In 2005, the dunes are only one of four Chicagoland sites to be honored as a Natural Areas Inventory site.
The Chicago Park District, upon Borns recommendation, set aside the Montrose Beach Dunes as a fenced, protected natural area almost seven years ago and has been working to restore the dunes to their natural state.
"I never dreamed this patch of beach would transform itself into the complex, high-quality habitat it is today,” said Borns. “Witnessing the return of our precious native flora and fauna has been one of the most rewarding and awe-inspiring experiences of my life. Montrose Beach Dunes teach us that the opportunity to discover and preserve biodiversity exists everywhere, even in the most urban of settings."
The goal of the restoration is to encourage the growth of native grasses, sedges, rushes, and forbs adapted to beach, dunes, and swales that are increasingly colonizing the area and to monitor threatened and endangered plants for the ChicagoBotanic Garden’s Plants of Concern Program. Volunteers have contributed countless hours by performing restoration management activities, monitoring plants and leading educational programs at the dune habitat.
- Contact Phone: 312 742 7529
- Publication Date: 04/03/07