we cultivate the power of plants to sustain and enrich life
We believe: Beautiful gardens and natural environments are fundamentally important to the mental and physical well-being of all people. We believe: People live better, healthier, and more satisfying lives when they can create, care for, and enjoy gardens. We believe: The future of life on Earth depends on how well we understand, value, and protect plants, other wildlife, and the natural habitats that sustain our world.
ALL LIFE DEPENDS ON PLANTS
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Plants help to provide the clean air we breathe, the clean water we drink, our food, our shelter, our clothing, our medicine; all of the resources we take for granted rely on plants. Chicago Botanic Garden scientists are helping to conserve, protect, and restore native habitats and the essential benefits they provide. The loss of just one important species, or the introduction of a new one that is detrimental to its habitat, can set off a chain reaction that results in diminished biodiversity overall, weakening Earth’s fragile ecosystem.
farmers, and occupational therapists of today and tomorrow. We provide plant-based educational, rehabilitation, and career opportunities for students from prekindergarten to Ph.D. at the Garden, in locations as varied as correctional facilities, schools, and veterans’ hospitals throughout the Chicago region, and on federal lands throughout the western United States.
Chicago Botanic Garden educators, in partnership with Garden scientists, train the plant scientists, environmental stewards, urban
The Chicago Botanic Garden is cultivating the power of plants to sustain and enrich life.
PHOTO // The view across the Great Basin to Evening Island is one of many vistas enjoyed by one million Garden visitors each year.
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“ Garden scientists create practical land and water management tools and solutions to address environmental challenges, including appropriately managing plant populations and plant and soil communities, especially within human-impacted landscapes.� Sophia Siskel, President and CEO, Chicago Botanic Garden
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C ON SERVATION SC IEN C E
Understanding and Conserving Plants than a quarter of the world’s approximately 400,000 plant in Peril More species now face extinction, and their habitats are also threatened. At the same time, the number of trained botanists is diminishing and fewer and fewer university biology departments offer an expertise in plants.
We need plant scientists to help save the plants, and the many products and processes they provide, in turn saving the people and wildlife that depend upon them. Fortunately, plant science flourishes at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Within our 38,000-square-foot Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Plant Conservation Science Center and at field sites throughout the United States and in other countries, more than 200 Garden scientists, graduate students, and interns discover important knowledge about plant species, plant reproduction, habitat fragmentation and restoration, plant and pollinator interaction, and the impact of invasive species. “The Garden makes a unique contribution to solving present-day ecological problems by integrating systematics, theoretical research, applied solutions, and adaptive management to save individual species—as well as communities of species—at varying geographic scales,” said Greg Mueller, Ph.D., Negaunee Foundation Vice President of Science at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Garden plant science research and training programs thrive through collaborations with academic, government, corporate, and private partners. Take, for instance, the Garden’s collaboration with Northwestern University: “The importance of partnerships between academic and scientific institutions is vital as we strive to understand, from a molecular level to ecological levels, how the world works,” said Daniel Linzer, provost at Northwestern University. “In 2005, Northwestern University and the Chicago Botanic Garden combined our strengths to create a unique graduate program emphasizing plant conservation biology. Within the Garden’s remarkable Plant Science Center, we support approximately 25 master’s students and nearly a dozen Ph.D. candidates.”
The Garden’s work with other conservation organizations is also evidence of thriving collaboration. “Working with our partners in the Seeds of Success consortium, the Garden’s Dixon National Tallgrass Prairie Seed Bank is the only seed bank in the world that focuses conservation efforts on the native species of the United States tallgrass prairie, one of the most endangered habitats on the planet,” said Kayri Havens-Young, Ph.D., co-director of plant science and conservation at the Garden. “I am particularly proud of the Garden’s participation in Seeds of Success, as well as our partnership to protect rare plants in partnership with the Center for Plant Conservation.” Conservation-based partnerships between the Garden and companies in the private sector are also proving to be mutually beneficial. “After initiating a ComEd, Chicago Botanic Garden, and Illinois Department of Natural Resources restoration and vegetation management partnership under ComEd power lines, experts identified plant life that was abundant nearly 200 years ago. Nearly 300 different plant species, including 40 species not previously identified, were recorded growing under the newly managed transmission lines at the 4,160-acre Illinois State Beach Park. Preliminary findings revealed a higher quality plant community and increase in rare plants,” said Anne Pramaggiore, president and CEO of ComEd, a major power utility in Illinois. “ We rely on the Chicago Botanic Garden to deliver the Conservation and Land Management (CLM) internship program in conjunction with the Bureau of Land Management. CLM places college graduates from across the country in paid internships at federal agencies to assist biologists and other professional staff in 15 western states. Since it began in 2001, the program has successfully trained more than 850 interns and increased the botanical capacity in federal land-managing agencies.” Peggy Olwell, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior
LEFT PHOTO // Garden scientist Jeremie Fant, Ph.D., collects seed of buckwheat (Eriogonum spp.) on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land in Idaho for post-fire
restoration work. Seeds were grown and compared with seeds collected from other areas.
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Chicago Botanic Garden Research Sites
Plant-based research conducted by Chicago Botanic Garden scientists has global reach. CHICAGO
Monitoring the status of the region’s threatened and endangered species
WISCONSIN
Conserving Pitcher’s thistle (Cirsium pitcheri), an important and imperiled plant of Midwest dune habitats
ENGLAND
Working as part of international plant and fungal conservation initiatives
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COLORADO
Restoring native plant communities to reduce the frequency and intensity of wildfires
Malaysia
Researching underutilized crop plants and their wild relatives
Mexico – Yucatan
Investigating fungal-mediated ecological processes
CHINA
Documenting the effects of pollution on the ecology and diversity of beneficial fungi symbiotic with forest trees
UNited States Alaska Arizona California Colorado Florida Georgia
Mexico Yucatan Quintana Roo
Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas
Kentucky Maine Michigan Minnesota Missouri Montana
Nebraska Nevada New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina
North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon South Carolina South Dakota
Tennessee Texas Utah Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming
International Argentina Australia Bangladesh Bolivia Brazil Cameroon
Chile China Costa Rica Ecuador Estonia Fiji
Germany Guyana India Japan Malaysia Mariana Islands
Mongolia Netherlands Papua New Guinea Peru Pohnpei
South Africa Spain Sweden Thailand United Kingdom 7
CO NSE RVAT IO N S CI E NCE
SOLUTIONS THROUGH SCIENCE Chicago Botanic Garden scientists conduct plant-based research in our backyard, within the U.S., and throughout the world.
Andrea Kramer, Ph.D. Andrea uses ecological genetics research to inform the selection of native plant species and seed sources for restoration. She conducts her research in degraded arid environments of the western U.S., where there is a great need for large-scale restoration. (Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management grant)
Krissa Skogen, Ph.D. Krissa studies how floral scent-mediated interactions between flowering plants, pollinators, and floral enemies affect diversification at the population, species, and higher taxonomic levels. Her research, primarily in the western U.S., combines a variety of different scientific approaches to answer broad-scale conservation questions to ultimately guide policy and management decisions. (National Science Foundation grant)
Nyree Zerega, Ph.D. Nyree is using DNA sequence and fingerprint data to understand the evolutionary history of the genus Artocarpus, and the genetic diversity of two important tropical crop plants in the genus: jackfruit and breadfruit. Her research takes her to Southeast Asia. (National Science Foundation grant)
Shannon Still, Ph.D. Shannon is studying the distribution of more than 500 plant species, mostly in the western U.S., calculating future migration due to climate change, and creating species distribution models. (Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management grant)
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Stuart Wagenius, Ph.D. Stuart investigates the interactions of demography and genetics in remnant populations of Echinacea angustifolia, a prairie plant, in the Midwest. His conclusions are helping to inform the conservation and management of longlived native plants in fragmented habitat. (National Science Foundation grant)
Rebecca Tonietto, Ph.D. Candidate Rebecca studies the effect of prairie restoration on bee communities in the Midwest as part of her studies in the Graduate Program in Plant Biology and Conservation. She received Northwestern University’s Presidential Fellowship and Plant Biology and Conservation Award. (Garden Club of America Fellowship in Ecological Restoration; Prairie Biotic Research Grant)
Norm Wickett, Ph.D. Norm is researching the genetic lineage of mosses that date to the Cretaceous, when flowering plants began to dominate the world. Mosses play critical ecological roles throughout the world, and studying them will help build upon the current understanding of life’s evolutionary history. (National Science Foundation grant)
Patrick Herendeen, Ph.D. Patrick researches the evolutionary history of flowering plants using both living and fossil plants. He is working with several collaborators on fossil plants from the Early Cretaceous of Mongolia. (National Science Foundation grant)
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“ At the age of 17 I knew I’d be dead before the age of 20. Now at the age of 20, I plan on being more successful than I could ever imagine.” Darius Jones, Windy City Harvest program graduate, quoted in 2011; Darius is now the McCormick Place Rooftop Farm coordinator and is managing a Chicago Botanic Garden incubator farm in Chicago, supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, United States Department of Agriculture
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Urban Agricu lture Jobs Trainin g
Brighter Futures in a Growing Economy
Too often, people with limited opportunities because of circumstance or poor choices, or both, find themselves unable to reach their potential. Poverty, crime, and the frustration and hopelessness they engender can seem insurmountable. The Chicago Botanic Garden offers alternatives that are based upon the growing interest in urban farming.
The results we have seen since introducing plant-based jobs-training and mentoring programs have changed thousands of lives. The Garden’s Green Youth Farm program works with at-risk teens, teaching them about the food system and good nutrition. Each year, 100 young people learn about the importance of plants and work as a team at one of our six urban farm sites in low-income neighborhoods in Chicago and North Chicago. These students become directed toward higher education and inspired by the belief that their actions can contribute to positive change for some of the area’s most challenged communities. The Chicago Botanic Garden also trains adults, including former felons, through our Windy City Harvest program, which offers urban agriculture jobs training at sites as varied as the Cook County Sheriff’s Vocational Rehabilitation Center (VRIC) on the west side of Chicago and the 20,000-square-foot roof atop McCormick Place, one of the world’s largest convention centers. Many participants have gone on to complete the Garden’s nine-month Windy City Harvest certificate program in sustainable urban agriculture offered in partnership with Daley College, and 89 percent of the graduates have found employment in the local job market. Annually, Windy City Harvest provides positions for 150 hard-to-employ adults. “Since 2003, participants in the Garden’s Green Youth Farm and Windy City Harvest programs have grown and harvested 200,000 pounds of fruit and vegetables, learning valuable jobs skills and providing fresh produce to underserved communities within and outside of Chicago,” said Angela Mason, the Chicago Botanic Garden’s director of urban agriculture.
The success of the Garden’s urban-agriculture and jobs-training programs wouldn’t be possible without its network of collaborators, such as Midwest Foods and FarmedHere, both of which serve as employment partners. “We are honored to be working with the Garden and Levy Restaurants to create jobs and opportunity through agriculture and gardening,” said Mary Ann Fitzgerald, president and CEO of Midwest Foods. Midwest Foods also serves as a local supplier to Levy Restaurants at Chicago’s U.S. Cellular Field, which purchases produce grown at the Garden’s Green Youth Farm and Windy City Harvest sites. Paul Hardej is the vice president of FarmedHere, a commercial aquaponics business that employs Windy City Harvest graduates. “We are extremely pleased with the relationship FarmedHere has developed with Windy City Harvest, excited about the opportunities we can offer to people wanting to redirect their lives,” said Hardej. During World War II, the Chicago Horticultural Society, in partnership with the Chicago Park District, supported the creation of 15,000 victory gardens on vacant property within the city extending to the suburbs. Today, continuing to fulfill our horticultural legacy, the Chicago Botanic Garden is supporting the local food renaissance and is meeting the needs of many Chicago-area residents with new approaches and new partners in urban agriculture and jobs training. “ When I see a vacant lot, all I can think is, what can I grow on it? People still don’t have enough food to eat—and the food available isn’t fresh. That’s what I think about: feeding people, being stewards of the land.” Safia Rashid, a graduate of the Garden’s Windy City Harvest certificate program and prospective incubator farmer
TOP PHOTO // Inmates at the Cook County Vocational Rehabilitation Impact Center (VRIC) grow crops as part of jobs training in urban agriculture. CENTER RIGHT PHOTO // Darius Jones (quoted at left)
BOTTOM RIGHT PHOTO // Green Youth Farm participants work as a team to grow, harvest, and sell fruit and vegetables to underserved urban communities.
BOTTOM LEFT PHOTO // Growing vegetables, growing confidence, growing hope
for the future.
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“ Understanding the science behind current and future environmental challenges is critical to finding effective solutions. We must provide opportunities for young people to get excited about nature, science, and the environment if we are to have an environmentally engaged and educated citizenry who can lead us to a sustainable future.� Jennifer Schwarz Ballard, Ph.D., Associate Vice President of Education, Chicago Botanic Garden
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ED U C ATION
A Legacy of Chicago Botanic Garden leads public gardens in the scope Learning The and depth of its education programming. Our goal is to help produce the next generation of land managers, conservation scientists, science educators, and environmental stewards, and to foster in all an appreciation of the wonder and power of plants.
For many children, learning about plants and engaging with nature begins with the Garden’s family, school, and camp programs. We provide programs annually for 80,000 young people through events and drop-in programs; 25,000 students and teachers through field trips; 1,200 children through summer camp; and 1,600 children and families through our specialized early childhood and specialneeds programs. The Science Career Continuum represents a growing and vital facet of education at the Garden. Funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services, the Continuum begins with the Garden’s Science First and College First programs, which annually serve 70 middle- and high-school students from Chicago Public Schools. The Continuum engages students in multiyear science education experiences that inspire them to perform better academically and to pursue higher education. The program continues mentoring them as they explore environmental science careers. “Last year, three of our College First students received full scholarships to private universities, and each year, 98 percent of them attend college,” said Kathy Johnson, director of teacher and student programs at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Moving along the Continuum, college students can apply for a National Science Foundation-funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) internship in plant conservation. The Garden and Northwestern University provide REU interns from throughout
the United States a summer of plant-based research with mentoring from Garden and Northwestern scientists. “What better way to introduce students to scientific research than immersing them in it over the summer?” said Patrick Herendeen, Ph.D., co-director of plant science and conservation at the Garden and director of academic partnerships. “We select applicants with an interest in the science that we do here at the Garden. When the interns return to their colleges and universities for their senior year, we keep in touch and provide guidance as they consider the next steps in their career path.” College graduates can apply for Conservation Land Management (CLM) internships. CLM interns assist professional staff at the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, or U.S. Forest Service in 15 western states. At the end of the Continuum spectrum, students seeking graduate degrees can apply for the Plant Biology and Conservation graduate program the Garden offers with Northwestern University. “ The CLM internship program offers students the incredible opportunity to work in wildlife conservation all over the United States. It’s the best opportunity available to recent college graduates to get their foot in the door with federal agencies and study unique biodiversity. For me, it meant spending time in Lakewood, Colorado, monitoring rare plant species, and collecting native plant seeds for the Seeds of Success program.” Darnisha Coverson, CLM intern
Left photo // Science Career Continuum students receive mentoring and conduct research in the field and within the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Plant Conservation Science Center.
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“ When I first came to the Chicago Botanic Garden I was still having a lot of symptoms of brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, and this combination made it difficult for me to accomplish anything. Once I started here, it immediately helped boost my confidence and keep my mind active as I got back into shape. The act of gardening—growing things —completely improved my quality of life.” Iraq War veteran who worked in the Buehler Enabling Garden through the Mission Continues program
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H ORTIC U LTU RAL TH ERAPY
Healing AND Empowering through Plants
At the Chicago Botanic Garden, we believe that people live better, healthier, and more satisfying lives when they can create, care for, and enjoy gardens. All people.
The Chicago Botanic Garden’s horticultural therapy program makes it possible for everyone, regardless of physical or mental limitations, to experience the joy and satisfaction of hands-on gardening. Since a 1977 grant from the Chicago Community Trust funded the exploration of the role of public gardens in providing horticultural therapy, the Garden has grown into an internationally recognized leader in the field. “We are grateful that we can serve the health and wellness needs of people of all abilities, and at every stage of life,” said Patsy Benveniste, vice president of education and community programs at the Chicago Botanic Garden. “Horticultural therapy is both ancient and brand-new,” said Barb Kreski, the Garden’s director of horticultural therapy services. “The Garden is helping experts from around the world draw a line from history into the future of this growing field.” Today, the Garden’s horticultural therapy program serves veterans from past wars and recent conflicts, children and adults with autism spectrum disorders, people recovering from surgery or illness, and those who live with physical, developmental, and age-related challenges. We provide therapy services both at the Chicago Botanic Garden and in hospitals, schools, rehabilitation centers, and even hospice facilities. “We are very pleased with the horticultural therapy program that the Chicago Botanic Garden ran at Shriners this summer,” said Andrea Loomis, recreation therapist at Shriners Hospital for Children-Chicago. “Our patients’ participation in the fun and unique gardening activities
top LEFT photo // Horticultural therapy services are offered at the Garden as
well as hospitals, schools, and other facilities.
has proven to increase their strength, decrease pain, provide sensory stimulation, and reduce stress.” Horticultural therapy participants, including veterans, see the benefits of the program. “This is a very important program for a lot of us veterans,” said one Vietnam War veteran at Jesse Brown Veterans’ Affairs Medical Center. “ It gives us a chance to learn about different plants, flowers, and most of all to learn how to work with each other again. It opens our heads and hearts to each other. Thank you, thank you for taking time to help a lonely veteran like me.” In addition to providing horticultural therapy, the Chicago Botanic Garden trains credentialed therapists and consults in the design of greenhouses, gardens, and sensory landscapes. The Garden also helped to develop a distance-learning course on meditative gardening with the Hadley School for the Blind and elevated our horticultural therapy training program—a field the Garden helped pioneer—by offering our Horticultural Therapy Certificate of Merit program in a hybrid distance- and on-site learning format, opening the program to professionals nationwide. “ I decided to work toward a horticultural therapy certificate at the Garden because of its excellent reputation. It has helped me do what I love to do: bring people and plants together.” Marilyn Joyner, a program graduate, now a horticultural therapist at the College of DuPage bottom photo // At the Buehler Enabling Garden, innovative garden design,
tools, and techniques engage people of all abilities and ages in gardening.
top RIGHT photo // Veterans are among the diverse groups who benefit from the Garden’s horticultural therapy program.
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Growing Hope for the Future
The Chicago Botanic Garden is a living museum and center of plant conservation science and education that cultivates the power of plants through innovative programs in horticulture, research, land management, jobs training, and education. The partnerships we develop and the programs we support reflect a belief that our future depends on how well all of us understand, value, and protect plants and the benefits they create for people and animals. Facing the threats to plants and the healthy habitats on which they depend, we have embarked on an ambitious course of action with an urgent sense of purpose. As our message gains momentum, we hope you will join with us to champion the essential relationship between people and the plant world, now and for future generations.
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PL AN TS FOR L IFE 2 0 2 0
The Keep Growing Strategic Plan for the Chicago Botanic Garden In late 2009, the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Board of Directors approved “Keep Growing,” a new ten-year strategic plan that guides our work. The projects included in this $125 million capital and endowment initiative will enable the Garden to continue to engage, educate, and inspire, and to improve plant and ecosystem health close to home and around the world. Please visit strategicplan.chicagobotanic.org for more information about the Keep Growing strategic plan and the Plants for Life 2020 fundraising campaign. We wish to thank all past, current, and future donors to the Chicago Botanic Garden who support our important work.
INSIDE FRONT COVER & Page 1 photo Key (Listed clockwise) // [top left] Since its launch in 2001, the Plants of Concern program has trained more than 600 “citizen scientists” to help researchers locate and monitor rare, endangered, and threatened plants. Plants of Concern is coordinated by the Chicago Botanic Garden in partnership with local, state, federal, and nonprofit agencies. plantsofconcern.org // [top middle] An official demonstration site for Chicago Wilderness, the Native Plant Garden features sun-loving prairie plants, native plants that appeal to birds and butterflies, and woodland plants that prefer part-shade. chicagobotanic.org/explore/nativeplant.php chicagowilderness.org // [top right] The Chicago Botanic Garden’s Green Youth Farm program has mentored, employed, and inspired more than 600 students from Chicago-area middle schools and high schools since the organic-methods farming program began in 2003. chicagobotanic.org/greenyouthfarm // [middle right] Cream wild indigo (Baptisia leucophaea) is a rare native plant being monitored by the Garden through the Plants of Concern program. plantsofconcern.org Photo Carol Freeman // [middle center] DNA sequencing of jackfruit and breadfruit, native to Southeast Asia, is enabling Garden scientists to create a phylogenetic tree of the genus Artocarpus to help identify its wild ancestors. Ultimately, this research may enhance food security in some countries where hunger is a critical issue. chicagobotanic.org/research/staff/zerega // [bottom middle] Scientists at the Chicago Botanic Garden study bees and other pollinators to determine their role as pollinators in fragmented native habitats, and to understand the future of some rare and imperiled plants. chicagobotanic.org/research/staff/skogen chicagobotanic.org/research/staff/fant // [bottom left] The McCormick Place Rooftop Farm advances the Chicago Botanic Garden’s priority of promoting local, sustainable agriculture, provides hands-on training for Windy City Harvest students, and offers employment to participants in its transitional jobs program for ex-offenders. chicagobotanic.org/windycityharvest pages 2 & 3: photo Garbo Productions
One of the treasures of the Forest Preserves of Cook County