Chicago Wilderness Congress & Bus Tour Recap

Chicago Wilderness Congress & Regional Bus Tour

The Chicago Wilderness Alliance is a regional collaborative of hundreds of partner organizations and individuals working to implement landscape-scale approaches to conservation in and around the southern shores of Lake Michigan including members from Southeast Wisconsin, Northeast Illinois, Northwest Indiana, and Southwest Michigan. Chicago Wilderness holds a conference bi-annually know as “Congress”, and this year’s event, held on November 14th, was a huge success with over 650 registrants and 30+ presentations. Congress 2024 shone a spotlight on regional partnerships, approaches to tackling shared conservation challenges like invasive species eradication, co-creating environmental initiatives with local communities, learning from and incorporating ancestral knowledge, incorporating GIS and mapping into prioritization strategies, aligning partners for on-the ground conservation, and so much more! Learn More

Our team was excited to participate in two different break-out session panels. One focused on building partnerships to promote habitat connectivity to support pollinators (pictured left), and the other discussed conservation action planning efforts that support landscape-scale management of protected lands across the Calumet region (pictured right).

We also helped coordinate a regional bus tour as an optional field trip Congress registrants could attend to learn more about several of the conservation focus areas in Northwest Indiana.

Agricultural BMPs in the Moraine Focus Area Stop

After a window tour through Hobart Marsh and Deep River Focus Area, we made 5 different stops through out the day.

Our first stop was at Meadowbrook Nature Preserve, which is in the Moraine Focus Area, which also included a conversation with a local farmer who is utilizing regenerative agricultural practices in partnership with Shirley Heinze Land Trust to support water quality and soil health.

East Branch of the Little Calumet River Focus Area Stop

Next up we stopped at the Heron Rookery within the Indiana Dunes National Park to enjoy and discuss the East Branch of the Little Calumet River Focus Area.

Indiana Dunes Ecosystems Focus Area Stop

Aquatorium at Marquette Park in Gary for Lunch

Stop number 3 was at the Aquatorium in Marquette Park to enjoy the beauty of the Indiana Dunes Ecosystems, and also some delicious lunch! Thank you to Brenda Scott-Henry from the City of Gary for sharing her insights with our group.

West Branch of the Little Calumet River Focus Area

After lunch we headed to the Martin Luther King South property in Lake County to talk about wetland restoration occurring in the West Branch of the Little Calumet River Focus Area.

Our final stop was to Seidner Dune and Swale Nature Preserve in Hammond, within the Heart of Calumet – Grant Calumet River Focus Area.

It was a whirlwind day full of great conversations and so many beautiful sites. We are grateful to all our partners who coordinated this trip with us, and for all the participants who joined us to learn about collaborative conservation efforts across the Calumet Region.

Chicago Wilderness Congress & Regional Bus Tour

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