Stories by Patty Wetli

The bee was logged at the outset of the fourth annual Backyard Bumble Bee Count, which kicked off Saturday and runs through Aug. 1.

Nearly a dozen baby Blanding’s turtles — a state-listed endangered species — were recently released into the swampy waters of a Cook County forest preserve wetland.

Chicago Shakespeare has canceled its Friday and Saturday shows following a shooting during its Thursday night performance.

The addax, a Saharan antelope, is threatened with extinction in the wild, where fewer than 100 exist. A baby just born at Brookfield Zoo is part of the species’ conservation plan.

After a month-long "spa vacation," the Art Institute of Chicago's lions returned to their posts Tuesday and are once again guarding the museum's Michigan Avenue entrance.

Some people are concerned about what they say are deteriorating conditions at the high-quality habitat where the endangered plovers Monty and Rose raised their three successive broods of chicks between 2019 and 2021. 

This simple act of monitoring the presence of breeding birds at specified sites across the Chicago region is how the Bird Conservation Network has, over the course of more than 20 years, methodically amassed a data set that would be the envy of any research institution.

Monday was like Christmas in July at the Field Museum, where staff unpacked crates of newly arrived fossilized meteorites, holding 460-million-year-old secrets.

The girl drowned Tuesday in the lake waters off Gary, Ind. On Sunday, a 72-year-old man was pulled from the water off Indiana Dunes State Park. 

Time to head to the polls once again, Chicagoans. Online voting is now open through Tuesday in the annual Bungalow Garden Contest.

The Museum Campus working group released its report Thursday and among the big wins for nature is a vision that includes establishing a Great Lakes Climate Lab on the city’s shoreline, positioning Chicago as a global leader in developing resilient solutions for urban areas. 

The lateleaf oak has confounded botanists since it was first discovered in the 1930s. Scientists have been hard-pressed to find a single surviving example in recent decades. But a new discovery, pending genetic testing by Morton Arboretum, could put the tree back on the map. 

“We are heartbroken by the act of violence in Highland Park on Monday,” a spokesperson for the garden said. “In times of crisis, nature can be healing.”

Illinois environmental groups were quick to condemn the Supreme Court’s limits on the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, and placed the state in opposition to the justices’ stance. 

Climate change and the alarming trends of species extinction and habitat loss demand that conservation organizations think big. So The Land Conservancy of McHenry County stepped up its game.

Rejected bids included a $500 million offer from MAT Asphalt, which faced strong opposition from environmental justice advocates. The city announced it will issue a revised solicitation for asphalt production in the fall “to better address environmental and public health concerns.”

Researchers at Lincoln Park Zoo are surveying which ticks are present in the Chicago region, looking for clues about the effects of climate change and urban sprawl, and busting myths in the process.

With only 55% of lifeguard positions filled, the Chicago Park District is limiting access to “underutilized” beaches in order to redeploy staff to neighborhood pools, 37 of which will open July 5.

A Florida man drowned Monday in Lake Michigan after pulling a teenage female to safety from the water off Porter Beach at Indiana Dunes National Park, officials said.

The five planets that are visible to the naked eye are now lining up in a particularly unique formation in the early morning hours, all of them appearing in the same part of the sky. Want to catch the show? We’ve got tips.

Illinois is rebranding Asian carp as “copi” in a bid to get people to eat the invasive fish into submission. Fishermen are catching thousands of pounds a day and barely making a dent in the number of carp in waterways like the Illinois River, where it's estimated 20 million to 50 million could be harvested annually.

We all knew that Granddad, the Shedd Aquarium’s long-lived Australian lungfish, was an old-timer. Now, five years after he shuffled off to the big fish tank in the sky, Granddad’s true age has been revealed.

The recent heat wave, coupled with lower than normal precipitation, has produced conditions ripe for what’s known as a “flash drought” in the Chicago area.

Friends of the Parks is re-starting the conversation surrounding the gaps in Chicago’s lakefront park system and what those four miles could mean for shoreline protection, promoting biodiversity and delivering green space to areas where it’s in short supply.

 Gov. J.B. Pritzker officially added the eastern milksnake to the list of state symbols Thursday.

“We need lifeguards NOW and are offering great incentives to anyone who is a strong swimmer and interested in keeping the public safe,” Rosa Escareño, Chicago Park District general superintendent, said in a statement.