Urban and suburban communities can benefit their mental and physical health while simultaneously preserving the natural environment by incorporating green spaces into their infrastructures. Homewood and Flossmoor are two communities that value their green spaces with large parks, golf courses and forest preserves found throughout both towns.
While these spaces offer great opportunities for residents to get outside, they also offer much needed habitat and resources for plants and animals.
However, the scattered distribution of these green spaces can be detrimental to species that rely on larger habitat spaces to fully thrive. This type of habitat fragmentation is something that affects all species.
Consider animals, such as the white-tailed deer, that need a lot of space to get enough food to survive. Now think about some of the habitats in our area: Irons Oaks, Izaak Walton, Flossmoor Country Club, etc. These all offer a large amount of land and habitat for deer, but they are also used primarily as recreation spaces.
Also, consider their proximity to one another. They are so removed from other green spaces that it is almost impossible for the deer to move from one to another safely. Crossing major streets — Vollmer Road, 183rd Street, Dixie Highway — successfully is extremely dangerous for larger animals who face a high probability of being hit by cars, which is also a major concern for residents driving through those areas. Smaller animals, such as opossums, raccoons, squirrels, face similar challenges when crossing major roads, but survive more easily within neighborhoods.
If animals have a decreased ability to move between potential habitat spaces, these species experience decreased genetic diversity as the breeding pool is trapped within a habitat fragment. As a result, there is a greater chance of inbreeding within the population in one of the fragmented habitat areas.
This phenomenon leads to an overall decrease in genetic health in the population, which can ultimately lead to the loss of the species in a given area. In the face of human-driven climate change, supporting native species at the local level is essential to prevent extinctions and protect the environment.
So, what can we do?
It seems pretty unlikely that the Chicago suburbs will see large-scale land bridges that help wildlife cross major roadways like those already built in places like Colorado, California, and Washington. However, taking steps such as transitioning neighborhood lawns into native habitats can offer more connectivity between the larger habitats as they would offer food, shelter, and other resources for animals moving through our neighborhoods.
Switching to a native lawn benefits native plant and animal species and ourselves. While there is an initial high cost of creating a native lawn, the money saved from not having to buy chemical fertilizers and pesticides and the amount of water saved from not having to water the native lawn as often as a standard lawn will balance out the upfront costs over time. This can be done at the individual homeowner level as well as the park district and local government level.
The Homewood-Flossmoor Park District offers an annual native plant sale through Irons Oaks in the spring, and both Homewood and Flossmoor have opportunities within both communities for residents to get more involved in protecting our natural environment.
Promoting more native habitats in our park system can turn green spaces designed for people into green spaces that benefit both residents and the wildlife that surrounds our communities.
(Editor’s Note: Ms. Castagna is a Homewood resident completing a master’s degree at Miami University in Ohio through the Advanced Inquiry Program. She is focusing on land usage and how it affects native species.)