The City Nature Challenge is a friendly global competition designed to showcase the biodiversity in urban yards, parks and nature preserves.

The bleaching event has been so severe that NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch program has had to add levels to its bleaching alert scale to account for the growing risk of coral death.

Using the James Webb Space Telescope, researchers said they were able to detect signs of sulfur-based molecules called dimethyl sulfide or DMS, which on Earth are only produced by life, primarily marine phytoplankton.

Monarchs left Mexico in late March and have now crossed into Illinois, according to reports.

Roger Snyder, who worked at the Department of Energy for decades, will leave the Fermi Site Office in May, WTTW News has confirmed. The site manager works closely with the director of the national lab as part of the federal government.

The visitor center reopened Monday after closing for repairs in November 2023 following damage from a fire.

The first meteor shower of the year is here, with the Lyrids peaking late tonight into the pre-dawn hours on Tuesday.

The Chicago Park District said the best viewing will likely run through April 27.

Imani hatched at Montrose Beach in 2021. He has faithfully returned every year since, and last year he finally made a love connection.

Skunk cabbage is the first native wildflower to emerge in Chicago’s woodlands in spring. Other ephemerals will follow, blooming briefly on the forest floor before disappearing for another year.

After 10 years as the 35th Ward alderperson, Carlos Ramirez-Rosa is moving to a different office: superintendent and CEO of the Chicago Park District.

The wait is on to see whether at least one, or possibly two, pairs of plovers will nest at Montrose Beach this year.

President Donald Trump on Friday urged Congress to “push hard for more Daylight at the end of a day” in his latest dig at the semiannual changing of clocks.

Poisonous plants are having a moment, courtesy of the “White Lotus.” The Field Museum has a whole collection of toxic specimens, and the public can get a rare look next week.

Online registration for Chicago Park District’s popular six-week summer day camp begins next week. Fees are being raised to bring fees back up to pre-pandemic levels and to address rising operational costs, according to the district.

Newly published research suggests that despite all the pampering corpse flower plants receive from their curators, conservation efforts have fallen short in one key area that threatens the species’ survival in captivity as much as in the wild.