Stories by Patty Wetli

From apples and pumpkins to pig races, hay rides, petting zoos and beyond, we’ve rounded up some options for fall fun in the Chicago area.

Officials put out a call Friday for nominations for Chicago’s official Christmas tree. Pines need not apply.

The kerfuffle involving a fictional character insulting Lou Malnati’s, by name, has earned national attention. 

Cozy "cabins," modular blocks and heated tables that borrow a concept from Japan are the winners in the city's competition for outdoor dining designs. Now the race will be on for restaurants to implement these before cold weather hits. 

Oak was once the predominant tree in the Chicago area. Now most of them are gone. Ecologists have a plan to make sure they don’t disappear from the region entirely, and they need our help.

Students from Village Leadership Academy will be honored Oct. 16 at Friends of the Parks’ “Parks as Democracy?” annual conference, which will include a presentation from the youth activists.

There’s still a lot that scientists don’t understand about what makes trees tick, especially when it comes to fall color. A team at the Morton Arboretum is working to unlock those secrets.

Chicago-based artist Raychel Steinbach has designed a series of prints that celebrate individual Illinois state parks. Now she’s using the same imagery, inspired by places like Starved Rock and Moraine Hills, in a line of handmade masks.

A herd of 65 sheep and goats replaced more traditional mowing equipment this summer at MWRD’s Calumet Water Reclamation Plant, where the animals helped maintain the native prairie landscape. 

It's mating season for deer, which means more are on the move at dawn and dusk — prime time for deer-vehicle collisions. Cook County led the state in 2019 with 472 crashes.

Thursday’s full moon is the harvest moon, coming closest to the autumnal equinox. It will have some celestial company on Friday in the form of Mars, when the two will rise together and stay paired throughout the evening, according to experts.

It’s Fat Bear Week. No, we’re not mocking Matt Nagy’s squad, we’re talking about the annual competition to crown the beefiest brown bear in Alaska’s Katmai National Park. Here’s how to get in on the action.

Tuesday marks the first ever International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, so let’s talk about the produce that spoiled in your refrigerator and the unopened cans you trashed because they were past their “expiration date.”

State health officials also reported 25 coronavirus-related deaths, including seven in Cook County.

With thousands still becoming infected with the coronavirus daily, health officials are urging Illinoisans to get a flu shot in order to avoid a dangerous co-infection.

City-run farmers markets in the Austin, West Humboldt Park and Bronzeville neighborhoods have been extended further into fall in order to expand access to fresh food, officials said.

Visitors can choose from a slew of free activities at more than a dozen sites Saturday. Among the options, you can take a nature walk, learn the basics of camping, build a toy boat, meet some critters or join a scavenger hunt.

The city’s guidelines for 2020’s unprecedented outdoor fall-to-winter dining season allow for several types of heaters, but fire pits aren’t one of them.

During the fall equinox, the sun rises due east and sets due west, creating an effect dubbed “Chicagohenge” (in reference to Stonehenge), when the sunset is strikingly framed on east-west streets by the city’s skyscrapers.

It might not be the day of your Coppertone dreams, but you can get a little sand between your toes by signing up for one or all of this week’s volunteer beach and shoreline cleanups.

People have been leaving notes and flowers outside the Edgewater office of Cedille Records, a classical music label owned by James Ginsburg, son of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Join a hike Sunday in Will County, where a flock of American white pelicans, one of North America’s largest birds, is hanging out during its annual fall migration.

Community gardens and urban farms were left scrambling to comply with a new city policy related to hydrant access that left some without water throughout the entire 2020 growing season. 

The annual migration of monarch butterflies is currently at its peak in the Chicago area. Several roosting sites have been spotted around town as the creatures use the city as a pit stop on their 2,000-mile journey to Mexico.

Chicagoans are raising chickens, growing food and experimenting with all sorts of sustainable-living practices — all in their urban backyards. See how it’s done during this weekend’s annual Windy City Coop and Eco-Yards Tour. 

The EPA has completed cleanup of the Hegewisch Little League Field after discovering alarming levels of lead and arsenic in the soil.