Stories by Patty Wetli

Liam Durnan has been on a yearlong caper, hiking all 350 miles of Cook County forest preserve trails. “When people picture the forest preserve nearest them, most people think of it being the picnic groves,” he said. “They don’t know how big this thing is. It’s just incredible.”

In yet another sign that Chicago is bouncing back to life, the city’s premiere fountain will be switched on for summer after being sidelined in 2020.

While expectant parents Monty and Rose do the heavy lifting of incubating their clutch of eggs, the rest of us can help prep for the little ones by submitting suggestions for names.

Reserve Management Group, the parent company of the now-defunct General Iron, says it has “fully complied — and then some — with every city requirement” and is asking the courts to step in and do what the city won’t: issue a final permit.

Millions of specimens collected by the Field, not for exhibits but for scientific study, are unlocking mysteries of evolution and could answer questions about climate change.

Normally, nearly 11 inches of rain falls on Chicago in the spring. This year, the city has only measured 2.32 inches and is on track to set a record for the driest spring ever.

The beloved pair of piping plovers have established a nest, smack in the middle of habitat only just protected for the birds this spring. 

The Lawrence and Berwyn stations will fully close Sunday while track is rebuilt and new stations are constructed on a 6-mile stretch of the CTA Red Line.

Look to the night sky this week for fascinating celestial show: the solar system’s three inner planets — Mercury, Venus and Mars — will all be visible. Use the crescent moon as a guide to find them in the sky.

It’s illegal to forage in Cook County forest preserves. Every year, 100 citations are issued for poaching, a significant number of which involve ramps, the wild leek that gave Chicago its name.

Chicago will open all city-operated COVID-19 vaccination sites to youth ages 12-15 on Thursday, officials announced Tuesday. “Current data show that the vaccine is safe and effective in children, and it not only protects our kids, but also their families and our communities,” said Dr. Alison Arwady.

State and federal agencies are still assessing how much damage was done to natural resources in Northwest Indiana as a result of the 2019 discharge of hazardous chemicals into a Lake Michigan tributary.  

Chicagoans notched a whopping 12,000 observations of plants, animals and fungi in the 2021 City Nature Challenge, coming in well ahead of Moscow, Prague, London and Tokyo.

Specially trained “turtle dogs” took part in a field study of threatened ornate box turtles at Nachusa Grasslands, one of the species last homes in Illinois.

Three calves, with their distinctive reddish-brown coats, were spotted this week at Midewin. Bison calves are typically born in April or May.

The 240-pound, 100-year-old, nearly 7-foot-long sturgeon is making headlines. But fish that size used to be common in the Great Lakes and maybe, thanks to restoration efforts, they will be again.

Chicagoans in the Beverly and Morgan Park neighborhoods are under a water boil order possibly until Friday, following a service disruption at the Roseland Pumping Station.

Chicago birdwatchers were treated to a rare glimpse of a wayward hummingbird at LaBagh Wood, far beyond its normal range of the U.S.-Mexico border.

The American mink is the poster critter for Chicago River Day, the annual cleanup hosted by Friends of the Chicago River that has volunteers fanning out from Lake County to Calumet to clear litter and trash from sites along the waterway. Here’s how to participate in Saturday’s event.

With Janice Jackson stepping down as CEO of Chicago Public Schools, Mayor Lori Lightfoot will now be on the hunt for the 10th person to head the district since the position was created in 1995. Here’s a look back at the people who’ve held the spot and where they are now.

Clover was once commonly included in lawn seed mixes, but then gained a reputation as a weed. It’s time, horticulturalists say, to revisit clover’s environmental benefits.

Between 2010 and 2020, Chicago’s canopy cover decreased from 19% to 16%, largely due to the loss of mature ash trees, according to the 2020 tree census spearheaded by the Morton Arboretum. 

Working with specimens in the Field Museum’s collections, researchers from Loyola University Chicago found microplastics in fish dating back to the 1950s. “Plastic is everywhere,” the scientists said. 

From Friday through Monday, hundreds of cities from around the globe will be competing in this annual challenge to record the most nature observations. Can Chicago improve on its middle-of-the-pack results from 2020? 

Huge swaths of the Midwest were drained to make way for agriculture. UIC’s Kimberly Van Meter is harnessing NASA imagery to hunt for the region’s lost wetlands, the first step toward strategic restoration.

Chicago went from tank-top to sweatshirt weather in a matter of minutes on Tuesday in one of the wildest temperature swings the city has ever seen.