Stories by Patty Wetli

Get ready to experience spring, a brief dalliance with summer, and then a return to winter – all in the coming weekend.

As problematic as invasive plants, pests and pathogens already are, climate change will only magnify the havoc they wreak on habitat, wildlife and even humans.

A bit of space junk is hurtling toward the moon at 5,800 miles per hour, with impact set for Friday morning.

A rare patch of 8,000-year-old remnant Illinois prairie has been granted a new three-month lease on life, as the Greater Rockford Airport Authority has again delayed demolition of the natural area, pending additional environmental review.

Aleksandra Plewa and Peter Proctor's startup, EcoShip, collects used shipping materials and redistributes them to small business owners – for free. 

Though the Save Bell Bowl Prairie coalition earned a temporary reprieve for the natural area through March 1, the group remains at a stalemate with the Greater Rockford Airport Authority.

As enchanting as Lake Michigan's ice may appear, it’s unmistakably dangerous, as evidenced this week by the presumed drowning of an Indianapolis man who fell into the water off shelf ice at Indiana Dunes National Park on Monday.

Carvana’s 14-story glass tower will be a blight on Skokie, said residents, whose frustration boiled over at Tuesday night's meeting of the village’s Board of Trustees, where the project received final approval.  

The Urban River Otter Research Project recently launched in Cook County. One of the early goals is to gather otter sightings from the public in order to get a sense of the extent of the animal’s presence in and around Chicago.

The Chicago Park District’s state-of-the art track and field center at Gately Park in Pullman, which opened in 2021, owes its existence to decades of pushing and prodding by the late Conrad Worrill. Now it’s named for him.

An expected snow-making weather system took a swing south, downgrading anticipated accumulation in the Chicago area, according to the National Weather Service. The evening commute could still be messy.

Meteorologists have a clearer picture of the timing of Thursday’s winter storm, and it looks likely to snarl both the morning and evening commutes, especially in Chicago.

The Chicago Park District board of commissioners has elected Myetie Hamilton, a member of the board since September 2021, as the body’s new president, filling a vacancy left by the resignation of Avis LaVelle, who stepped down in November.

Temperatures could top 50 degrees in the Chicago area on Wednesday but the brief warmup will be accompanied by heavy rains, with a potential for flooding, followed by colder air and a wintry mix that could drop 7 inches of snow.

Green space advocates are in agreement that the north star of a new working group tasked to "reimagine" the Museum Campus needs to be the Lakefront Protection Ordinance. In short: No new building construction.

The eagle was released back into the Cook County preserve where it was found New Year’s Day, bleeding profusely. The raptor quickly reunited with its mate after more than a month apart.

The concessions are being written into an ordinance, which will come up for a second reading and final approval at a subsequent board meeting, possibly as early as Feb. 22. Failure to comply could lead to fines or even the suspension of Carvana’s business license.

On Friday, the Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation will begin clearing away any dibs objects still left on the streets, so move ‘em or lose ‘em.

Guien the agave continues to amaze. She’s now topped 20 feet and is fast approaching the Garfield Park Conservatory’s glass ceiling. Staff are trying to get the plant to slow her spurt.

The 14-story glass vending machine for cars, to be built across from a nature preserve, met with widespread opposition from residents and conservationists. At Monday’s board meeting, Skokie Village trustees gave the development the green light.

Delivering on a promise she made when the owners of the Chicago Bears announced their purchase of the Arlington International Racecourse property, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced the members of a working group tasked with reimagining the city’s lakefront museum campus.

The snowy owl and the long-eared owl elicit the sort of reaction usually reserved for rock stars, including the intrusion of cameras into their personal space. Recent incidents involving aggressive photographers have reignited a debate over whether owls' locations should be shared publicly.

Admission to the Chicago Botanic Garden is no longer free. Ticket prices will range between $9.95 and $25.95 per adult, depending on anticipated demand.

The snowy owl is being treated at Willowbrook Wildlife Center, where a bald eagle is recuperating from the same issue. Anticoagulants in rodenticides can be deadly to the birds of prey that eat poisoned rats, mice and other rodents.

Chicago is digging out from a wild Wednesday that saw continuous snowfall throughout the day, dumping anywhere from 5.6 inches at O'Hare to 11 inches at Midway. That looks to be the end of active weather, for now. 

People in the Chicago region woke up Wednesday morning to heavy snowfall hitting just in time to snarl the morning commute. And there's more to come.