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

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.

There’s a divide in the pollinator gardening movement between those who advocate for nothing but native plantings and those whose standards are less rigid. New research suggests there’s a middle ground.

A newly released survey of the eastern monarch’s 2025-26 winter population in Mexico showed a 64% increase over 2024-25.

Last November, the Trump administration proposed a stricter definition for “Waters of the United States,” excluding seasonal streams, marshes, bogs, swamps and mangrove forests from protection under the 1972 Clean Water Act.

If landscapes could talk, the 61-acre Greene Nature Preserve in Lake Forest would have quite the tale to tell.

Six bison released onto prairie in Kane County carry the weight of interwoven hopes: that they can heal both the land and the deep trauma borne by Indigenous people.

Collecting native seed can be labor intensive but it eventually pays for itself by creating even more seeds — for free.

The Grainger Center for Conservation and Science, projected to cost $50 million to build, will be a space for conservators across departments to collaborate, conduct research, teach and preserve the Art Institute’s collection, according to the museum.

Harrison Ford is one of the most famous people on the planet. David Willard has spent a career and his retirement cataloguing dead birds. Both will be recognized as conservation superstars during October’s Half-Earth Day event at the Field Museum.

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources has announced nearly $1 million in grants to support stewardship activities in natural areas across the state. Organizations in Cook, Lake and McHenry counties were among the recipients.

A new report explores how unprecedented levels of consumption by heavy water users — namely “hyperscale” data centers — could lead to conflicts over and even shortages of water, even in the Great Lakes.

What does the Chicago Park District owe its community of volunteer natural area stewards? Some say a little respect, and maybe a heads up if the district is going to mow down acres of native plants.

According to the Great Lakes Piping Plover Recovery Effort, 2025 has been a year for the record books, with 82 breeding pairs counted.

Despite desire from Native Americans in Illinois, the ban on Native imagery for mascots in K-12 schools stalled in the Senate after it made its way out of the House.

Cook County Forest Preserves is on a mission to restore 30,000 acres of habitat to high-quality condition by the year 2030. There’s just one tiny little problem: a lack of native seed.