LINCOLN SQUARE — Neighbors who volunteer to help clean up Winnemac Park’s natural area this spring and summer will also get a chance to learn more about its conservation.
The natural area at Winnemac Park, 5100 N. Leavitt St., comprises three acres of native prairie habitat popular with birds and butterflies in the center of the park.
The park’s advisory council will be leading an Earth Day cleanup of the area 10 a.m.-noon April 20. Neighbors can sign up to volunteer on the council’s website.
“One of the crown jewels of our park is the natural area. It’s the thing I think everyone who uses our park uses and enjoys,” council member Amy Williamson said. “The advisory council has big plans for things we would like to do there moving forward.”
Unlike other Chicago Park District parks that were created on former landfill sites, Winnemac Park is former farmland with already rich soil that has helped native plantings thrive, Williamson said.
“You’ve got a really good nature area, as far as diversity goes. The growth here is really strong. There are a number of sites that we’ve been working on for years where things are sparse and the diversity is still really low,” said Edward Warden, the Park District’s community stewardship program manager.
In addition to his role at the Park District, Warden is president of the Chicago Ornithological Society and a member of the nonprofit The Nature Conservancy.
Warden jokes this makes him a “one-man band” in the Park District’s natural area stewardship program, which is why he’s a proponent of “deputizing” neighbors to play a meaningful role in their community’s natural areas, he said.
“People are an essential part of this. These natural areas cannot stand on their own. They do not exist on their own. They were not placed there on their own,” Warden said. “They didn’t pop out of nowhere; people are the key element to their survival.”
Warden will lead a walk-and-talk educational tour of Winnemac’s natural area 6 p.m. May 23 and 11 a.m. Aug. 11 where neighbors can learn how to create a stable ecosystem for native species, he said.
“In general, the natural area [at Winnemac Park] is a bit messy in some areas, but you have an incredible strong foundation … in terms of what comes next for the management of this site,” he said.
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