A proposed change to the United States’ Endangered Species Act could threaten not only to reverse decades of progress but accelerate the pace of loss, experts said.

Six years ago, Illinois became the second state in the nation to offer subsidies to farmers for planting cover crops in the fall, an effort to reverse its status as one of the worst states for agriculture runoff.

"Unofficial" trails were damaging rare ecosystems in Swallow Cliff Woods. The forest preserve district asked people to stick to marked paths and the message succeeded.

A group of microscopic sunflower sea star larva arrived at Shedd Aquarium last year and have been bulking up behind the scenes ever since. Now, after growing 16,000%, they’re ready to make their public debut.

The monarch butterfly population has rebounded from a near record low number in 2024, according to the latest annual survey conducted by the World Wildlife Fund-Mexico.

Three new species of king cobras have recently been identified, and the Field Museum’s collection has been harboring one of the rarest for nearly 80 years.

Allie, one of Brookfield Zoo’s bottlenose dolphins, is expecting a calf in late spring/early summer.

Community volunteers helped Shedd Aquarium researcher Karen Murchie discover an important trigger of sucker fish migration and along the way they've become vital advocates for freshwater animals.

So far in 2024, the district has acquired 249 acres, the second most in any year since 1984, according to officials with the Forest Preserve District of Cook County.

Researchers at the Chicago Botanic Garden and Chicago Park District have teamed up on a project to answer one of ecology’s burning questions: What could lawns be besides grass?

The planting of a non-native milkweed and the practice of captive-rearing monarch caterpillars have been identified as two possible sources of monarchs failure to survive their fall migration.  

Local officials celebrated the completion of the Illinois Beach State Park Shoreline Stabilization Project, which will protect the state’s only remaining natural shoreline from the devastating effects of erosion.

At the end of August, participants in the Sihek Recovery Program, of which Brookfield Zoo is a member, took the first small step toward one day bringing birds and birdsong back to Guam.

Lake County Forest Preserves has acquired a 41-acre property in order to protect its “rare ecological attributes,” which include the largest heron and egret rookery in the county.

After analyzing data from a community science project on urban milkweed patches, Field Museum researchers have identified common milkweed as the species most attractive to monarch butterflies. 

The endangered black-crowned night herons aren’t captive, they just happened to build their nests on the grounds of Lincoln Park Zoo. Why? Because they like having bodyguards.