8 | March 15, 2018 | The glencoe anchor news glencoeanchor.com Finding ways to save energy and conserve Library hosts Glencoe resident for Conservation at Home presentation Hilary Anderson Freelance Reporter Homeowners can help the environment in their own backyards. Front yards, too. That is the is the message Glencoe resident Diane Greening gave to a group of individuals interested in home conservation who gathered March 7 at the Glencoe Public Library. “Sustainability starts at home,” said Greening, who is a volunteer naturalist at the University of Illinois Extension and a member of the Friends of the Green Bay Trail. “The Conservation at Home program is about how you can help the environment at your house and reduce some of your time and effort landscaping.” The project is hosted between the University of Illinois Extension and the Forest Preserves of Cook County, started by the Conservation Foundation. “The Conservation at Home program encourages homeowners to make sustainable choices to get more native plants, wildlife, birds, butterflies and other beneficial insects in one’s yard and help save soil and water,” Greening said. “The program recognizes and certifies properties that show environmentally sound landscape practices. Individuals who evaluate the yards are master naturalists.” Greening said Conservation at Home is important because a large percentage of land is privately owned resulting in a lack of quality habitat, which provides food, water and space for living things. “An insect might require just a little space like on a shrub but bigger animals, such as foxes, need a larger space to run and hunt,” Greening said. “Forests and national parks are not enough because they are fragmented and isolated. A population that becomes isolated has a gene pool that degrades, which is what happens with forest preserves. The animals cannot easily get from one place to another. By providing oases between these spaces, like in one’s backyard, birds, insects and animals can move from one place to another. They meet others (animals and insects) with different gene pools and that helps keep them going.” She said one problem with suburban and urban lands is that there is too much lawn. “It is nuts that we take this beautiful Lake Michigan water, treat it for drinking and then throw it on the lawn,” Greening said. “More sustainable means less lawn. It cuts down on habitat, biodiversity and uses clean water. That does not mean removing your lawn entirely but minimizing your lawn means conservation.” Greening then went into some of the criteria for Conservation at Home. One is water management. “Minimize watering the lawn and use artificial irrigation,” Greening said. “Lawns can become addicted to watering. They will learn to deal with less water and grow deeper roots, which help hold the soil and make it healthier.” One way to water the lawn using artificial irrigation is by placing downspouts so the water runs out to vegetation and not just onto the cement. Buying a rain barrel is another good method or making a rain garden. Permeable paving is yet another way of providing artificial irrigation. Another requirement for conservation at home is the use of vegetation. “Put 10 herbaceous native plants in your yard,” Greening said. “They are those that die to the ground each winter. It is not hard to get to 10. Some are wildflowers, grasses and ferns. There should be present three species of native shrubs or trees — elms, oaks, some shrubs — a diversity of plants.” Another positive conservation measure is planting beneficial non-native plants, like sedum for pollinators. Removing invasive plants including buckthorn, garlic mustard and ones that take space are also important in home conservation. “Habitats need space,” Greening added. “Sometimes it is not just a building taking space but a plant that is crowding out the natives.” Minimum use of synthetic chemical pesticides is required for home conservation. Wildlife management similarly is important. “We left some dead wood from a few tree limbs in the back of our yard that insects, birds and animals now use,” Greening said. “Thickets like evergreens provide some shelter for birds in the winter. Leaving vegetation over the winter is great. Some of the seed heads are food for birds. Not too much bare soil either, which can cause erosion.” Those who attended the program were glad they did. “We came to find ways to save energy and conserve,” said Barb Padiak, who attended with her husband, Scott. “We needed ideas that we could apply to our home.” “This information was fascinating but yet simple in its suggestions about what we can do in our gardens to help the conservation effort,” attendee Caroline Erbemann said. “I liked the examples Greening gave.” “The program is a great way to for adults to learn more about conservation and get their kids involved,” Dorr St. Clair added. “Involve the children from early on.” Neighbors From Page 6 some fresh ideas.” Throughout the past few years, the City of Lake Forest received feedback from vendors and residents noting why they thought participation was declining. Some of the feedback received included that there was not very much produce offered at the market, whereas other locations nearby, such as Elawa Farm Garden Market and the Lake Bluff Farmers Market, had better produce options, Czerniak said. “We are not looking to duplicate some activities and are looking for fresh ideas,” Czerniak said. As the City reevaluates the Open Air Market and searches for new ideas, residents are encouraged to send their ideas to Catherine Czerniak at czerniac@cityoflakeforest.com, or the Lake Forest/Lake Bluff Chamber of Commerce by calling (847) 234-4282. Reporting by Alyssa Groh, Contributing Editor. Full story at LakeForestLeader. com. THE NORTHBROOK TOWER Former trustee calls for NB assault weapons ban Michael Scolaro, a former three-term Village Board trustee who retired from the board last year, said he only had a couple of regrets stemming from his time as a trustee. One of them, he said, was not a vote he made, but one that was not put up for a vote at all. “I listened to people come up and speak to us about an assault weapons ban,” he said. “I thought ‘there’s 300 million guns in the country right now, what is a piece of paper going to do? A piece of paper isn’t going to stop a bullet, it’s not going to make anybody give back a gun, it’s merely a feel-good thing for the do-gooders,’ was my thought.” But with two daughters who work in schools and gun violence around the country, he urged the Village Board to take action. “It’s time for an assault weapons ban in Northbrook,” he said. Scolaro pointed to Highland Park’s assaults weapons ban, which stood up after the Supreme Court rejected an appeal to the ban. Village President Sandy Frum said, however, the decision is not in the Village’s hands anymore. “Unfortunately, we don’t have the ability to place it on the agenda anymore. The state has taken that right away from us,” Frum said. Reporting by Fouad Egbaria, Freelance Reporter. Story at Northbrooktower.com. THE HIGHLAND PARK LANDMARK Highland Park man sentenced to 54 years in 2013 murder One of the three men charged in the 2013 murder of Highwood resident Colin Nutter was sentenced March 2. Philip Vatamaniuc, 22, of Highland Park, was sentenced to 54 years in prison, his attorney LaTonya Burton said. Nutter was found dead of a gunshot wound near the Edens Expressway. According to docs, Vatamaniuc and two others planned to rob Nutter after buying marijuana from him. Burton said she and her law partner plan to appeal Vatamaniuc’s sentence. Reporting by Xavier Ward, Contributing Editor. Story at HPLandmark.com.
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