By Rebecca Judd and Arnold Randall
Chicago has an enormous, and underused, asset to safeguard communities from the impacts of climate change: restoring and protecting nature.
There is no doubt that Chicago is feeling the effects of a changing climate. Look no further than this summer. It was characterized by volatile weather – ranging from a drought and dust storm in May to severe heat in June to flash flooding in July. Our changing climate is increasingly contributing more to these types of frequent and intense events.
Natural areas like prairies, forests, and wetlands make up over 11% of the region, many thousands of acres. Around 50% of the region is comprised of farmland, which can play an important role in buffering natural areas and providing ecosystem benefits if conserved and managed properly. We must invest in protecting and stewarding these lands.
Conserved lands act as buffers against extreme weather, serving as sponges, absorbing excess stormwater during heavy rainfall and flooding. They improve and protect our drinking water by filtering pollutant runoff to our waterways. They also suck carbon emissions and other pollutants out of the air to clean the air we breathe. In addition, natural landscapes are vital in reducing the urban heat effect, as green spaces like trees and river ecosystems help moderate temperatures and hold less heat than paved surfaces.
Natural areas like prairies, forests, and wetlands make up over 11% of the region, many thousands of acres. Around 50% of the region is comprised of farmland, which can play an important role in buffering natural areas and providing ecosystem benefits if conserved and managed properly. We must invest in protecting and stewarding these lands.
There are huge economic benefits, too. By conserving land and making communities more resilient to climate change and severe storms, we can save on costly repairs to homes, businesses, and our public infrastructure such as roads and bridges that are susceptible to flood and other damage. Natural areas that absorb and mitigate flooding also reduce the strain on our underground stormwater and sewer systems.
Land conservation is also a must have when it comes to a better quality of life for everyone. It gives people access to the outdoors, which connects us with nature, reduces stress, and provides places for recreation and gathering.
Protected areas also preserve biodiversity by providing plant and wildlife habitat. This is vital as ecosystems everywhere are declining from development, degradation, climate change, and pollution.
This is why we need to do more to conserve and restore more land in the region. As one of the few private foundations in the region that provides consistent support for nonprofit conservation organizations and efforts across Chicagoland, we are proud of the role we play in funding this work. Our support ranges from prairie restoration at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, wetland restoration in the Calumet, helping land trust organizations acquire and put more conservation easements on land, and boosting preservation efforts at publicly managed places like Indiana Dunes National Park, Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge, and all of our region’s forest preserves.
But we cannot do this work alone. Given the scale of need for land protection and restoration in the region and how resource-intensive this work is, private funding only goes so far. Although we certainly encourage more private investment in land conservation, the reality is that private philanthropy will never have the same resources as public funding. Given the current federal funding cuts, our state and local governments will need to step up in an even bigger and more sustained way to fund and support land conservation.
There is good news on that front. Nature is a unifying issue, and there is clear public appetite to increase funding to preserve and restore open space. Look at the recent ballot measure wins across the region, where voters in Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, and McHenry approved raising their property taxes or paying for bonds to increase land conservation at their county forest preserve or conservation districts.
We hope this creates a blueprint for additional state and local investment to protect the lands and ecosystems needed to sustain us. By preserving and restoring more open space and natural areas, we can ensure a healthier, more resilient, and sustainable future.