Bird and Butterfly Sanctuary Certification Program News
Source: https://illinoisaudubon.org/
Our Bird and Butterfly Sanctuary Certification program is reaching new heights and unique places. In the past few weeks we have certified the gardens at a skyscraper, a five-acre hotel complex, and the parking lot of a 165-year-old bakery. Read their stories below.
Overlooking the Chicago River and Riverwalk, 200 South Wacker is a 40-story office tower located in Chicago's West Loop financial district. Quincy Park wraps around the building and is landscaped with native flowers and trees with a long-term goal of extending some of the plantings around the entire building. Building management also participates in “Lights Out Chicago” during migration and Windy City Bird Lab recently placed a listening device on the rooftop to help monitor bird migration.
The Drake Hotel in Oak Brook has certified five acres of their grounds where monarch caterpillars feed on milkweed and hummingbirds duel over the flower beds. They are Level 1 Arboretum Accredited with 55 species of trees and a certified Monarch Waystation. Their outdoor wedding venue and patios include annuals and perennials with a good variety of native flowers. The grounds crew is working hard to convert more of their garden beds and flower pots to low maintenance native flowers.
A crew of 25 volunteers helped Trefzger’s Bakery, Peoria Heights, plant 1000 native prairie plugs and a dozen native trees around a newly renovated parking lot. They also hosted a hummingbird festival this summer called Humming in the Heights, celebrating hummingbirds, bees, butterflies and pollinator gardening. More than 250 folks attended to enjoy native flowers in full bloom which attracted dozens of pollinators. The bakery owners are hoping that their efforts will set an example for other businesses along Prospect Drive to use native plants in their outdoor areas.
Photos by Brian ‘Fox’ Ellis
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