Stories by Patty Wetli

While a number of high-profile bills failed to garner enough support during the spring session of the Illinois General Assembly, the designation of an official state bee sailed through both the House and Senate.

Admire the creativity of the region's green thumbs and discover inspiration on garden walks, hosted by neighborhood associations and garden clubs across the area.

A man has been arrested in the sexual assault of a 29-year-old woman in LaBagh Woods on May 23.

On Friday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finalized its designation of critical habitat for the endangered bumblebee. Counties in six states, including Illinois, are listed in the new ruling.

The Obama Presidential Center is kicking off its public programming with a three-day grand opening festival, June 19-21.

Friday marks the unofficial start to summer, with the city’s lakefront beaches opening for the Memorial Day holiday weekend.

More than 1,100 people participated in the contest, submitting more than 3,200 options. A committee narrowed the choices down to three finalists.

Chicago City Council members unanimously approved an amendment to the city’s Native and Pollinator Garden Registry ordinance, which now allows plants up to 36 inches tall in the parkway.

Monitors with both Chicago Piping Plovers and Lake County Audubon Society reported eggs laid at Montrose Beach and the Waukegan shoreline, respectively.

The rare ghost orchid bloom will be on public display at the garden’s Tropical Greenhouse through May 25.

On May 9, one of the herd's females gave birth to a calf, the first baby bison born on tallgrass prairie in the county in 200 years, officials estimate.

The Chicago Park District has erected barriers at the Southeast Side park where a pair of eaglets and their parents are nesting.

Chicago’s Native and Pollinator Garden Registry is now open for applications. But before a single submission has even been accepted, an amendment to the ordinance governing the registry is already in the works.

For the first time in more than 100 years, a bald eagle has been born inside the city’s limits, the Chicago Park District announced Wednesday.

Most birds migrate over Chicago at night. A new network of acoustic monitors is tracking their movements by listening for what can't be seen.

Grounds, custodial and facilities employees had been on the picket line since Monday.

Officials with Chicago's Department of Environment recently released an updated Green Infrastructure Strategy, the first revision to the document in more than a decade.

Monitors have confirmed that for the third year running Sea Rocket has returned to Montrose and Blaze is back at Waukegan.

Officials said the zoo remains open and “animal care continues without interruption.”

Deborah Witzburg served a single four-year term as inspector general and declined to ask Mayor Brandon Johnson for reappointment following frequent clashes with the mayor.

Pepper has been spotted on a Waukegan beach, where he and mate Blaze nested in 2024 and '25.

The annual City Nature Challenge has rolled around again, and everyone's invited to join the effort to boost the Chicago region's standing in this friendly global competition.

Lincoln Park Zoo’s baby Eastern black rhino is ready to meet her adoring public.

What kind of outdoorsman leaves Colorado for Illinois? Six months into his tenure as general superintendent with the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, Adam Bianchi still gets asked that question.

A bird-friendly building ordinance has once again been introduced to the Chicago City Council — the second time such legislation has been brought before City Council since 2019 — but advocates fear the measure was dead on arrival.

The Chicago Harbor Lock was built in the 1930s as part of the project that famously reversed the flow of the Chicago River. WTTW News explains.