Naperville Parks District: Naperville Park District Receives The Jane Foulser Habitat Award ...

Press release from Naperville Parks District:

October 15, 2021

At the October 14, 2021 Naperville Park District board meeting, representatives from the DuPage Monarch Project presented the 2021 Jane Foulser Habitat Award to the Park District for its commitment to adding and caring for monarch habitat in parks.

Connie Schmidt, one of the volunteer leaders of the DuPage Monarch Project, cited the District’s long term plans to restore and stabilize pond and river shorelines with native plants and to convert underused turf areas to pollinator habitat. The District added 7.16 acres of pollinator habitat in 2021 and plans to continue adding native plant habitat each year.

DuPage Monarch Project is a volunteer-led organization with the goal of increasing public awareness of the plight of pollinators and advocating for increasing the amount of healthy habitat available for them. In 2016, Naperville Park District was among many public agencies that became signatories of the DuPage Monarch Project, meaning that they signed resolutions to preserve and promote monarch habitat. Since that time, Naperville Park District has added 5 monarch waystations, hosted a Monarch Festival, raised and released 175 monarch butterflies at Knoch Knolls Nature Center and has added more than 17 acres of pollinator habitat in parks across the community.

“We appreciate the work of DuPage Monarch Project in advocating actions that organizations and individuals can take to protect monarchs and other pollinators,” said Eric Shutes, director of planning. “Restoring diverse habitat for pollinators and other wildlife is an important part of our environmental stewardship.”

Updates and information about the District’s environmental initiatives can be found at https://www.napervilleparks.org/greeninitiatives.

This press release was produced by Naperville Parks District. The views expressed here are the author’s own.