[Communications] Chicago native plant parkway restoration project

[Adam M]

Lorraine,

Thanks for getting back to me. We are in Lakeview near Wrigley Field, so
unfortunately we do have a lot of uphill battles to regenerate the soil
(gameday foot traffic, dogs, and winter salt).

I 100% agree the first step is to regenerate the soil to make it more
fertile and need to talk to more community groups about ways to add
compost/leaves etc. into the soil and would love to use stuff that is
already in our system to divert away from landfills.

I think our neighbors fall into groups that 1) take really good care of
their parkways but maybe don't prioritize native diversity and rental units
where there is a great opportunity, however many buildings still hire
"landscapers" who come by once in a while to use their gas blowers to
remove any organic material.

But I think if I can reach out to more of my neighbors we can work together
to achieve these goal and I'd love to continue the conversation with groups
around the city like yours.

Thanks!
Adam


On Mon, Apr 22, 2024 at 12:10 PM Lorraine Kells <lxkells at gmail.com> wrote:

> Adam,
>
> The photos you sent are all too common in our parkways in Chicago. The
> Streets and Sanitation, Bureau of Forestry dept has stated a goal to plant
> 75,000 new trees in the city of Chicago. We know that has fallen short and
> what's worse, the trees we do have in our parkways are not maintained.
> While four public agencies are responsible for planting and maintaining
> trees in the parks and on parkways, resources are limited, so the burden
> falls to residents. You'll find page 7 of the Guide to Urban Tree Care,
> states that the city relies on us to care for our urban street trees.
>
> While your photos are familiar, you did not indicate any location or
> group for supporting the parkways with these trees.  Are you willing to
> contact residents, homeowners or local businesses to get out to manage
> these parkways and street trees, to do the regenerative work?  Before more
> beautification can take place with the addition of pollinator plants,
> the dirt which no longer resembles healthy soil may need amendment. The
> trees need mulching.  So do you have a plan?
>
> Best,
> Lorraine Kells
>
>
>
> On Sun, Apr 21, 2024 at 3:13 PM Adam M via Communications <
> communications at chicagocommunitygardens.org> wrote:
>
>> Hi Lorraine,
>>
>> I would love to work on a project in our neighborhood (and hopefully
>> expand from there) about restoring some of our parkways with native plants.
>>
>> Would love to discuss more and also help close the loop with composting
>> and other regenerative measures.
>>
>> I've attached a couple of photos as a reference point.
>>
>> Thanks!
>> Adam
>> --
>> Communications mailing list
>> Communications at chicagocommunitygardens.org
>>
>> http://chicagocommunitygardens.org/mailman/listinfo/communications_chicagocommunitygardens.org
>>
>
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