CLIMATE ACTION PLAN FOR NATURE COMMUNITY ACTION STRATEGIES CHICAGO COMMUNITY CLIMATE ACTION TOOLKIT Find this and other climate action tools at climatechicago.fieldmuseum.org © The Field Museum, 2012 COMMUNITY ACTION STRATEGIES CLIMATE-FRIENDLY GARDENS 1AND LAWNS 2WATER CONSERVATION 3MONITORING 4STEWARDSHIP 5CLIMATE CHANGE EDUCATION Climate change is affecting both people These community action strategies are designed and nature in the Chicago region. Chicago to assist individuals and communities to: Wilderness, a regional alliance of more than 1. mitigate, or lessen, the future impacts of 250 organizations, created a plan called the climate change by reducing greenhouse Chicago Wilderness Climate Action Plan for gas emissions, Nature (CAPN)1 to address the impacts of 2. help plants and animals adapt to climate climate change on local nature and identify change, or strategies to help humans and nature respond 3. both. and adapt to changes in our climate. For example, converting lawn into gardens can This document outlines how residents of the help people, plants, and animals both mitigate Chicago region can help implement the goals and adapt to climate change. Gardens do Did you know that the Chicago region has of the CAPN in their own community through not require mowing and can provide natural two additional plans that address climate the following ways: habitat (homes) for birds as well as for change? The Chicago Climate Action Plan (www. butterflies and other insects. chicagoclimateaction.org) is the City’s roadmap to 1. Climate-Friendly Gardens and Lawns reduce greenhouse gases to 25% below 1990 2. Water Conservation Each strategy is described in detail in the levels by 2020 and 80% by 2050. GO TO 3. Monitoring sections below, including specific examples 2040 (www.goto2040.org), our comprehensive 4. Stewardship of action items and links to more resources. regional plan, provides guidance for seven 5. Climate Change Education Technical terms are included in italics and counties and 284 communities in the Chicago defined in the glossary at the end. region to plan together for sustainable prosperity through mid-century and beyond. 1Chicago Wilderness Climate Action Plan for Nature. Chicago Wilderness. June 2010. www.chicagowilderness.org/pdf/Climate_Action_ Plan_for_Nature.pdf climatechicago.fieldmuseum.org • 1 PLANT SELECTION AND Additionally, the long, complex root systems of native CLIMATE- ARRANGEMENT plants create pathways in the soil that help rainwater to soak directly into the ground instead of flowing FRIENDLY Use native plants into a nearby sewer or waterway. This increases a GARDENS Planting native plants in a garden can provide many garden’s capacity for stormwater infiltration environmental benefits. Native plants are species (amount of rainwater the garden can absorb). 1AND LAWNS that have lived in the Chicago region for thousands of years and are well adapted to local growing Use climate-smart plants conditions. Some native plants have characteristics Climate change scientists predict that the Chicago that make them climate-smart garden choices, such region’s climate will become hotter and drier, with as the ability to withstand summer droughts. more precipitation occurring in large storm events Once they have taken root and matured, native plants do not require mowing, intensive watering, or fertilization, making them less resource-intensive, Nodding Onion Gardening is a rewarding way to get in more sustainable options for the climate-friendly (allium cernuum) touch with nature in your own backyard or garden. community. Some gardeners are already noticing changes in the types of plants they RESOURCES can grow in their gardens and how plants Native plants are good options for maximizing a Watch a Native Plant Garden video featuring are responding to our changing climate. garden’s carbon sequestration (ability to remove a Field Museum scientist, on Chicago Tonight. Fortunately, gardeners can make their gardens http://vimeo.com/40476211 more resilient to climate change. There are carbon from the atmosphere and store it in the some garden practices that not only help garden’s plants and soils). Many native plants are Conservation @ Home is a program for homeowners looking to incorporate native mitigate climate change impacts, but also long-lived and have long, complex root systems create habitat for native plants and animals, plants and other sustainable practices into their which in turn helps them adapt to climate that are able to sequester more carbon than short- yard. http://www.theconservationfoundation.org/ change. rooted plants like lawn grass and annuals. Since conservation--home.html Vegetation and soil are integral parts of the these plants are continually growing and shedding The US EPA Green Landscaping site is a carbon cycle2; therefore every gardener plays old plant parts, they are helping add organic clearinghouse of information on native landscaping. http://www.epa.gov/greenacres/index.html a part in the global carbon cycle and has the matter, or carbon, to the soil. Much of this carbon power to make their garden “climate-friendly.” is returned to the atmosphere through respiration Wild Ones is a nonprofit organization that The Union of Concerned Scientists defines a promotes environmentally sound landscaping and decomposition processes, but some carbon “climate-friendly garden” as one that “stores, practices. http://www.for-wild.org or prevents the release of, more heat-trapping remains captured or bound in the plant tissues and 3 Blue Thumb provides resources on designing gases than it generates.” The sections below soil. This carbon will remain stored in this form unless outline actions a landowner or gardener can and selecting plants for your native garden. take to create a living, beautiful, climate- otherwise distributed. http://www.bluethumb.org friendly garden or landscape. Photo: Courtesy of Dennis Paige 2”The Carbon Cycle.” Landscapes For Life. 2011. http://www.landscapeforlife.org/give_back/3a.php. 3“The Climate-Friendly Gardener: A Guide to Combating Global Warming from the Ground Up.” Union of Concerned Scientists. April 2 • climatechicago.fieldmuseum.org 2010. http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/food_and_agriculture/climate-friendly-gardener.pdf. resulting in more frequent floods. When planting create corridors for migration through our urban rotating the location of crops each year can also gardens, select plant species that are able to areas. make pests and diseases easier to manage without withstand periods of drought and a wide range of chemicals. To minimize fertilizer use, consider moisture; they will be better able to adapt to climate Plant arrangement and diversity may also influence planting cover crops like cereal grains in the fall. change. the habitat quality of a garden. Multi-layered Cover crops are not harvested; their purpose is to gardens that incorporate mature trees, small trees, store carbon and nourish soil over the winter, making Plant trees and shrubs berry or fruit-bearing shrubs, grasses, and flowers soil more productive and drought-resistant in the spring. All plants store carbon in their tissues—leaves, are attractive to birds, and groups of colorful, stems, wood, and roots—but long-lived, healthy, flowering, native plants are attractive to butterflies. large trees and shrubs are able to store more carbon Providing a water source in the garden can benefit for longer periods of time, making them climate- both. Rather than cutting off all your plant’s flower Nodding Onion smart choices. Also, well-placed trees and shrubs heads in the fall (“fall clean-up”), consider leaving (allium cernuum) can provide shade and reduce energy use in homes seed heads on to provide a natural food source for and buildings. The city of Chicago’s trees—our winter birds. RESOURCES “urban forest”—remove about 888 tons of air Bringing Nature Home is a website by pollutants and 25,200 tons of carbon per year. They Planting a variety of native plants will help create Doug Tallamy, a professor at the University of are also estimated to store 716,000 tons of carbon. balance in your garden. A complex garden will Delaware who has been studying insects and Planting trees and shrubs is an important climate support a variety of insects, birds, and bats that eat their role in the environment for over 20 years. action strategy for the Chicago region.4 harmful insects, naturally keeping these populations http://bringingnaturehome.net/native-gardening in check. “The Climate-Friendly Gardener: A Guide to Combating Global Warming Create bird and wildlife habitat from the Ground Up” by the Union of Any backyard or vacant lot can become a sanctuary Grow your own food Concerned Scientists. for local wildlife. Creating a backyard habitat is a Growing your own food is often more climate- www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/food_and_ wonderful way to invite nature into your community friendly than purchasing food, because it cuts down agriculture/climate-friendly-gardener.pdf while providing critical places for birds, insects, and on processing, packaging, and transportation—all Guide to a Climate-Friendly Diet, another mammals to feed, rest, and raise their young. of which require energy. But not all local food is tool produced by The Field Museum as part of the Chicago Community Climate Action Toolkit, grown in a climate-friendly way. To grow a climate- provides more information and local examples Over thousands of years of living together, our friendly, edible garden, take steps to maximize about