PRESERVENEWS BLUE STAR MUSEUMS Active-duty military personnel (with ID) and their families, including National Guard and Reserve, enjoy FREE admission at the Dunn Museum (Libertyville), May 20 through September 4. Plan your visit: LCFPD.org/planyourvisit
What the Forest Preserves Do for You: Flood Mitigation Spring brings wildflowers, warmer temperatures—and sometimes, drenching rains that lead to flooding. Your forest preserves help mitigate the depth and breadth of floods. Woodlands, wetlands and prairies absorb much higher amounts of stormwater than developed areas, where rainfall often runs into storm sewers. Natural areas reduce the costs of flood damage to homes, businesses, roads and other built environments, as well as the costs of building and operating stormwater management infrastructure. They also efficiently purify stormwater and recharge groundwater at higher rates. These effects make up an ecosystem service—a free benefit to humans provided by natural processes—called water regulation and flood control. An acre of wetland provides about $22,000 worth of this service per year, while an acre of prairie provides $16,000 and an acre of woodland offers $1,603. Learn more about what the preserves do for you at LCFPD.org/greenstrategy.
STRATEGIC PLAN UPDATE: Strengthen Connections The Forest Preserves recently hired a bilingual environmental educator, who will help us move toward our objective to reach a broader audience. Requests from local schools and community members for programs delivered in Spanish emphasized the need for multilingual programming. “We are proud to offer all of our environmental education programs in Spanish,” said Education Manager Alyssa Firkus. “Our goal is to reach out to the Spanish-speaking community and encourage them to visit and enjoy the forest preserves.” Beginning this spring, the educator will offer a series of guided forest preserve walks in Spanish. “They will educate participants about plants, animals, nature and history of the preserves,” Firkus said. The walks are meant to expand our reach into communities and make our programming more welcoming to all residents. Get a ticket for upcoming walks at LCFPD.org/calendar : • Thursday, April 27 at Nippersink (Round Lake)
• Saturday, May 13 at Buffalo Creek (Long Grove) View our complete 100-Year Vision and Strategic Plan, and
Road Map to 2025 objectives and tactics at LCFPD.org/vision.
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