A boost for bees and turtles: Kane Forest Preserve to benefit from $20K in grants
The Kane County Forest Preserve District received a $10,000 ComEd Openlands Award for the development of a 17-acre oak savanna and pollinator corridor at Big Rock Forest Preserve.
In addition, Kane County Forest Preserve Foundation received a $10,000 grant for improvements to the 7.53 acres of butterfly and Blanding's turtle habitat at the Freeman Kame-Meagher Forest Preserve in Gilberts.
ComEd announced in a news release that it awarded nearly $200,000 for the development of green spaces across northern Illinois.
Though one of the grants went to the Kane County Forest Preserve Foundation, Becky Gillam, the foundation's board president, said it would give the money to the district to carry out the work.
"It's important because we need to increase pollinator plantings for bees and endangered species like the Blanding's turtles," Gillam said.
Natural Resources Director Patrick Chess said the forest Preserve is contributing $12,000 in matching funds for the oak savanna work.
"We've already got oaks planted there ... a couple hundred white and bur oaks primarily," Chess said. "They're about chest high or so."
The area has low-quality nonnative grasses, such as Eurasian brome and Kentucky bluegrass and herbaceous species, such as crown vetch and bird's foot trefoil, Chess said.
Instead of risking damage to the oaks' root system, they would seed in native grasses with a pollinator mix into the grass cover.
"We do not want to do anything that impacts the oaks growing," Chess said.
In winter, they plan to remove invasive brush, such as olive and honeysuckle, and follow up with more of the seed mix.
The pollinator mix of native plants will include pale purple coneflower, lead plant - a small shrub with purple flowers - bee balm and yellow coneflower, Chess said.
"We are typically targeting a very diverse group of over 100 different species of native prairie plants," Chess said. "The higher the diversity mix, then the more supportive of higher diversity pollinators."
The prairie flowers would bloom in succession so that pollinators always have a steady supply of food and habitat.
ComEd grants also went to:
• Patriots Park Pollinator Habitat Restoration in Downers Grove to help the Downers Grove Park District fund native plantings.
• Theosophical Society in America in Wheaton for planting 50 trees in a 42-acre, 900-tree public arboretum, prioritizing native trees that sustain pollinators, birds and mammals.
• Wynnfield Detention Naturalization to help Algonquin convert a 4.6-acre turf grass dry bottom basin to a naturalized basin using native pollinator species to enhance the wildlife habitat, increase site aesthetics, and provide ecosystem benefits.
• Oakhurst Community Recreational Path/Waubonsie Creek Trail Intersection in Aurora to help the Oakhurst Community Association remove dead, diseased and nonnative trees where paths intersect. It will also fund the addition of benches along the path and new pollinator plants.