“My neighbors always want to park under my tree,” said the longtime Cicero resident and executive director of the town’s Department of Housing.

Tomschin and other town officials expect more locals will have coveted and much-needed access to shade in the coming year as a new project aims to plant 500 trees and develop an urban forestry management plan for the west suburb of Chicago.

Cicero is one of 22 Illinois communities that will collectively receive nearly $6.9 million in federal funding to plant and care for more than 1,800 trees in disadvantaged communities across the state, the Morton Arboretum announced Monday. A tree canopy is crucial to public and environmental health by cooling high urban temperatures, supporting biodiverse ecosystems, reducing flooding and cleaning dirty air.

The arboretum, which received 61 applications for more than $14 million, will administer the almost $7 million through their Chicago Region Trees Initiative, or CRTI, using U.S. Forest Service Inflation Reduction Act funds and under the direction of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

Awarded communities, which include the city of Chicago and the Chicago Park District, will also use these funds over the next four years to complete tree inventories, collectively prune over 500 trees, remove hundreds of dead or high-risk trees and clear several acres of woody invasive species, as well as provide educational and multilingual resident outreach.

“Doing an inventory of the entire community,” said Zach Wirtz, director of CRTI, “can really help us understand the priorities and then better provide resources to those areas that are considered disadvantaged. … I’m really excited that these grant opportunities have such a strong focus on community engagement because really, what we’re hoping for, are positives for both trees and for people.”

Clean air, cool temps and less flooding

Almost 88% of Cicero’s residents are Hispanic or Latino, according to the most recent census data. The town’s census tracts all score medium-high to high on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Social Vulnerability Index — which refers to demographic and socioeconomic factors like poverty, lack of transportation access and crowded housing that adversely affect communities when they encounter human-made stressors such as pollution.

Part of the $511,200 awarded to the town will be used, Tomschin said, to share with vulnerable residents how the benefits they can reap from a bigger tree canopy “far outweigh” any concerns over perceived drawbacks, such as roots finding their way into the sewer system or gutters being clogged by leaves in the fall.

“Cicero historically has been a lower-middle class, blue-collar community. We once had a huge industrial base here,” Tomschin said. “So we’re surrounded by these industrial sites, landlocked in a highly urban community. And we’re now starting to feel those effects of heat islands and tree discrepancies. … We look to our neighbor to the north, Oak Park. They have an ancestral tree canopy. Why not us?”

In extreme heat, trees can help cool neighborhoods. But a Tribune investigation found the city has planted more trees in wealthier, whiter areas

Using the White House’s Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool, the Department of Housing and Urban Development Opportunity Zones Map and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool, the arboretum created a map that indicates which census tracts in Illinois are considered overburdened or underserved and therefore disadvantaged by one or more of those standards, making them priorities for funding.

“There are some blocks in town that have no trees,” Tomschin said of Cicero. “And it’s going to take a lot of work — not only taking the data from that inventory and maintenance plan, but to get buy-in from the community to once we plant the tree in front of their house.”

Besides helping purify dirty air, which became a concern for many city folks and suburbanites since Canadian wildfires blew smoke into the Midwest and other parts of the United States last summer, tree canopies can alleviate extremely high temperatures that are worsened by concrete and gray infrastructure absorbing and retaining heat.

Trees also absorb rainwater into their roots and allow it to more easily infiltrate the soil, which can prevent flooding — a salient issue for Cicero residents, whose streets and basements flooded multiple times during heavy rains last summer. In a July 2 storm that swept through the area, the town recorded 8.6 inches of precipitation.

“The more trees you have, the more roots that are taking that water out of the ground. If we can make room for more water, the better,” Tomschin said. “I’ve lived here my entire life, and we’ve had at least four horrendous flooding events. … Climate change is real. They used to happen every 20 years. Now, they happen, it seems like, every three or four (years).”

After more flooding in Chicago, how to combat intensity of storms fueled by climate change is top of mind

After those floods in early July, a Cicero resident told the Tribune she lost furniture, appliances and family mementos when water in her basement reached waist-high in just one hour.

“The devastation around the neighborhood — it was just unbelievable,” Shapearl Wells said back then. “Until we have investment in (green) infrastructure, this is going to continue to happen and we’re going to continue to get flooded out.”

Green infrastructure in urban planning entails making space for parks, rain gardens and trees that can withstand torrential precipitation and more frequent storms.

Next steps

Taking stock of what’s out there will allow officials from different communities — from suburban to inner-city Chicago and other parts of Illinois — to understand where the strategic placement of trees or the maintenance of existing ones can yield the best results.

Tomschin said the next step for Cicero will be to perform a tree inventory or census and a management plan, for which the town will seek a certified arborist.

“We’re hoping to have a contractor consultant selected and the inventory done by the fall,” Tomschin said. “So that way, come spring when it’s the perfect time to start planting, we can start getting out there with the community to get trees in the ground.”

“Good things are on our horizon,” he added.

In the city, the Chicago Park District will receive almost $1.5 million to support an inventory across its parks that will inform future plantings in identified priority areas.

“If you can imagine, the Park District’s tree canopy is made up of 250,000 trees,” said General Superintendent and CEO Rosa Escareño. “What’s interesting about this is that we’ve been using this number for a long time, and I think for us, it’s so important to understand what our tree canopy is truly made up of. We want more data on how we can not only continue to nurture and maintain the canopy that we have but, data on the condition of our trees, the type of trees, the life of our trees.”

Escareño said this updated knowledge will become instrumental to policy- and decision-making in the future. Almost 9,000 acres of parkland make the Chicago Park District one of the biggest municipal park districts in the country, she said, a fact that demands investment in pressing climate issues.

“We have a responsibility to do this,” she said.

Receiving $3 million, the city of Chicago was the biggest awardee for the current round of grants.

“We know that in large cities like Chicago, we often overlook the benefits of green space despite these natural resources being the best ally we have in the fight to address climate change,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said in a news release Monday.

The other communities selected by the Morton Arboretum for awards include the city of Belvidere and the Belvidere Park District, Blue Island, Bolingbrook Park District, Burbank, Effingham, Elgin, Franklin Park, Hazel Crest, Hillside, Normal, Peoria, Roselle Park District, Round Lake Area Park District, Skokie Park District, the village of Streamwood and the Forest Preserves of Winnebago County.

“Every community is going to be a little bit different, with their schedule,” Wirtz said. “And some communities will move faster than others, depending on what their current capacity looks like. Each community did turn in a proposed timeline with their application. … Our staff members are going to meet with every one of these awardees on a quarterly basis.”

The Arboretum will continue awarding funds to nonprofits and government entities, from municipalities, townships and county governments to conservation districts, park districts, schools and other community-based organizations. Applications for a total of $7.9 million in their Tree Equity Grants for Disadvantaged Communities through additional IRA funding are now open until Sept. 13. Those awards will be available for a minimum of $25,000 and a maximum of $500,000.

Urban forestry grants for community-based organizations within t Chicago — including its tree ambassador program partnership with the arboretum, Our Roots Chicago — will also be announced in the coming weeks, Wirtz said.

“The arboretum has been doing urban and community forestry grants like this for a number of years, so we’re familiar with the process and we’re definitely ready to take this on,” he said. “But this is a large project. The IRA (Inflation Reduction Act) has brought this great influx of funding to urban forestry across the U.S., and we’re really happy to be a part of that. … And we’re ready to take on this adventure with these communities.”

adperez@chicagotribune.com

Many of those trees could be cut down to make room for a city sidewalk project — initiated through a resident request — dividing neighbors into those who support the trees and those who support the sidewalk installation.

The city is considering a sidewalk to encourage more non-motorized transportation.

According to the city of Highland Park, a sidewalk project on University Avenue is now in the public engagement and evaluation phase, but no decisions have been made concerning a sidewalk in the area.

The next steps for the project include a further study, including an engineering survey and tree-impact report, to provide a comprehensive report and recommendation to the City Council, according to the city’s website. The report is expected to be available at the city’s Transportation Advisory Group meeting on June 19.

Developed in the 1920s by socialite Edith Rockefeller McCormick, the Highlands were envisioned to offer a forested oasis to the bustle of city life, according to an American Lifestyle magazine article written by Highlands resident Linda Stein in 2022. There are few sidewalks on the residential streets of the Highlands, which is home to a primary concrete path on Summit and Krenn avenues.

Feedback on sidewalks to the city from October 2023 revealed a relatively “even split” among affected residents — those who reside in the proposed area — according to a city report. Thirty affected residents supported the sidewalk installation, 33 were not in favor and 31 did not respond.

Mark and Marla Portman have lived on University Avenue in the Highlands of Highland Park for nearly 40 years. When the couple learned about the potential sidewalk seven years ago, they were opposed to it immediately.

“We are so upset about this for no other reason than we want to save the trees,” Marla Portman said.

The couple, who commissioned a forestry study for the potential sidewalk, believes tree destruction is inconsistent with the core principles of the city, which includes environmental sustainability, according to the its website.

Residents in favor of the sidewalks argue the pathway would provide greater safety and accessibility for neighbors and children.

Barbara Hurwitz, who has lived on University Avenue for 46 years, said the narrow width of the street provides no leeway for pedestrians if two cars are passing at the same time. Add more vehicle traffic and groups of bikers, Hurwitz said, and  the street becomes “increasingly unsafe.”

“When I first moved here a long time ago, I had little kids and the street was a much different,” she said. “It was much quieter. In the decades following, it has changed … dramatically, and it has become an extremely busy street.”

While Hurwitz said she loves the trees and natural beauty of University Avenue, she believes the sidewalks are of greater importance to the community.

“I don’t want to say I don’t have concerns about trees, because I’m totally into nature,” she said. “But when you stack it up against the safety, kids and adults, no it’s not an issue.”

Support for sidewalks flip-flops

In 2017, residents were first notified by the city that there was consideration of adding a sidewalk to either side of the street based on a resident initiative. At that time, the policy required a resident receive 75% support from others living on the affected streets, which included University Avenue, Hyacinth Place and Western Avenue. A city memo indicates the survey met the required threshold.

Two years later, the Portmans circulated a counter-petition, which showed 57% of residents opposed the installation – a significant decrease in support for the sidewalk, according to city documents.

After various city engineering plans, community surveys and feedback sessions, residents of University Avenue received a notice in January 2020 that the city was not going to pursue the proposed sidewalk installation due to a lack of support from residents. In the letter, the city said it would not consider a new request for sidewalks for at least three years.

Later in September 2020, a new guideline for local sidewalk installations was approved by the City Council, to reduce the required residential support from 75% to 51% of affected residents, establish a survey template for residents and detail city follow-up steps, among other changes.

Three years later, the city revisited the sidewalk plans, after receiving inquiries about potential sidewalks during the resurfacing of University Avenue, according to a city memo.

In October 2023, 112 affected residents received a letter requesting feedback concerning potential sidewalks on University Avenue and Old Trail Road. The letter proposed five feet of green space between the curb and a five-foot sidewalk.

The city noted in the letter that a lack of response may be interpreted as support for the new sidewalks.

The city’s rationale for revisiting the sidewalk proposal is because the plan aligns with the city’s MoveHP plan, which encourages non-motorized transportation through street and sidewalk improvements.

This spring, the Portmans – along with a couple of dozen neighbors on University Avenue – commissioned an arborist report to better understand the potential consequences to their street foliage. The group wanted to have an independent report to compare to the city’s forestry report and has not yet shared the report with the city’s council or staff, the Portmans said.

The tree preservation plan by SavATree Consulting Group, a certified arborist in Northbrook, concluded the proposed sidewalk installation would cause a significant negative impact on many mature trees.

The plan, shared with the News-Sun, indicates many of the impacted trees are considered heritage, key or protected trees by the city due to their size, species or other unique value. The plan also offers preservation strategies to limit destruction to trees and their root zones.

A couple of parents and teens spoke in favor of University Avenue sidewalks during public comment at a March council meeting. Many mentioned that it was difficult for children to bike safely or walk to school on the street.

Other residents disagreed with their neighbor’s characterization of the safety of University Avenue. During the March public comment, Larry Walters said he taught his three young children to bike on their neighborhood street and his senior-citizen mother, who lives with the family, has no problems walking on the grass or sidewalk.

chilles@chicagotribune.com

Pitstick, 65, remembers tending to the crop with a tractor and using a radio to check for weather updates. Today, he plants using a computer-guided machine, and genetically engineered seeds make it possible for Pitstick and other farmers to produce more.

Although the history of his family’s Elburn-area farm goes back generations, Pitstick is focused fully on the future as the need for soy products grows. And he’s not the only one.

Pitstick is one of some 43,000 soybean farmers represented by the Illinois Soybean Association, which is leading an effort to spur the development of soy-based products that are increasingly used as a cleaner and more sustainable replacement for petroleum.

Launched by the association in March, the Soy Innovation Center is intended to serve as a virtual resource for innovators around the globe looking to test out new soy products and bring them to market.

Todd Main, director of marketing development for the association, said the innovation center will not only commercialize new uses of soy, but also create jobs in Illinois.

“Because about 60% of Illinois soybeans go overseas, we have a broader focus than a lot of other states because we have to have a good relationship with buyers all over the world,” Main said.

Products using soy in place of petroleum have proven popular as interest in clean energy climbs. Clean energy and transportation investment in the U.S. surged by nearly 40% in 2023 to $239 billion, according to independent research firm Rhodium Group.

Some examples of soy-based innovations are products that can be used in manufacturing or heavy industry under high pressure and temperature, Main said. A few common uses for soy at smaller scales include foam used to put out fires and printer ink.

“There are hundreds of products that soybean is used in, and the variety of products has grown substantially in the last 10 years,” Main said.

While innovation is limitless, the center is looking for ideas and investments that can scale quickly and use soy in place of petroleum in big ways to have a smaller environmental footprint. Funding available for projects through the innovation center comes from the soy checkoff program, which is made up of a portion Illinois farmers’ sales.

Several projects are under consideration, and the innovation center is currently funding the development of a soy-based lubricant that can be used on farming equipment.

Ohio-based Airable Research Lab, which is working with Illinois and other top soy-producing states to develop new uses for soybeans, is testing the lubricant. The goal is to get a certificate of quality for the lubricant over the summer, Main said, after the testing phase wraps up.

Dylan Karis, lead chemist at Airable, said that in addition to the sustainability aspect, soy-based solutions can also increase workplace safety by reducing the toxicity that workers in manufacturing and processing settings are exposed to.

He added that being able to “constantly innovate” is a dream job.

“What gets us excited is continuously working to get a product super high in bio or soy content, like over 90% is huge,” Karis said. “That’s bigger for us and more important for the bigger picture.”

Airable was also involved in developing Roof Maxx, a soy-based product that’s used to rejuvenate dry, brittle asphalt roofing shingles. The lab continues to help the company, which is also based in Ohio, improve the formulation.

“What we have is an environmentally-friendly, bio-based product using soy,” said Scott James Papendorf, the Orland Park dealer for Roof Maxx.

The idea behind the product is to save people from having to completely replace their roof. “We’re very proud of being able to take a roof and give it another lifetime,” Papendorf said. “That’s one less roof in the landfills, too.”

Illinois produces about 670 million bushels of soybeans each year, making it the largest producer in the U.S. But soybeans are booming beyond Illinois, too. According to the USDA, planted soybean acreage increased by 18% from 2002 to 2022 in the U.S. Yields have also increased by 30%.

Soybeans can be put in the ground up until about mid-June, but Pitstick had already completed his planting for the season by mid-May. The earlier the better, he says, as the crop will yield more if it has more time to mature.

Pitstick has silos on his property which he uses to store his crop as it comes off the fields during harvest season, which starts in mid-September and runs for about six weeks.

The grain harvested from Pitstick’s farm — typically 700 semitruck loads of both soybean and corn — is stored and then parceled out over the next year. Much of Pitstick’s harvest is exported, so his soybeans are delivered via the Illinois River to New Orleans and then put on a ship for any number of final destinations from Mexico to China.

Grain that is not immediately exported will go to a crush facility, which is a place where the soybean is crushed into soybean oil and high-protein meal. A majority of soybeans that are crushed, about 80%, become the meal that predominantly goes toward livestock feed, while the oil is used as commercial vegetable oil or biodiesel.

Farmers are raising more and more soybeans every year — about 10,000 bushels each year — thanks to advancements in technology. The seed is better, he said, having gone through genetic engineering. More than 93% of soybean fields in major U.S. regions were using genetically engineered seed by 2006, according to the USDA.

With more product to move, the Illinois Soybean Association is “always looking for the next new market,” Pitstick said.

“The need for our product is also growing as we are becoming more environmentally conscious,” Pitstick said. “And farms themselves are also transitioning from petroleum-based products to renewable ones that are more sustainable.”

Farmers first entered the renewable resources discourse some 30 years ago and have since grown in influence, Pitstick said, and he is trying to keep the conversation going for future generations. The innovation center is one such platform.

“There’s a lot of smart people out there that know a whole bunch about soybeans and would love to make the world better,” he said. “They want to take something and make it into another thing. We just have to find those people.”

“The birds hunt, so they focus on the ground and what they’re looking for, and don’t really focus on where they’re going,” Husted said. “So they accidentally hit wind turbines, and it kills them.”

Illinois is the fifth-largest state for wind energy, and produces about 7% of the United States’ wind energy, according to the American Clean Power Association, a renewable energy industry group.

But, hundreds of thousands of birds and nearly 1 million bats die every year in collisions with wind turbines throughout the United States and Canada. As scientists look for ways to mitigate the effects of climate change, clean energy producers need to keep wildlife populations and their habitats in mind, experts say.

“More than half of the (bat) species in the U.S. are either declining or at some risk of decline,” said Winifred Frick, chief scientist at Bat Conservation International. “Wind energy is the leading cause of mortality for our long-distance migratory species. And that mortality rate is worryingly high.”

Husted said the wind farm in DeWitt County went through his county’s approval process twice, ultimately passing a second county board vote. He said there was strong opposition from the community at both meetings.

“It passed, although they had not addressed our concerns,” Husted said. “In all of the public meetings, there were just a few people on the ‘for’ side and a ton of people on the ‘against’ side. But we were characterized as just a vocal minority.”

The wind farm, operated by Enel Green Power, has been in operation for nearly a year. Matthew Saville, a site manager for the wind project, said no eagle deaths have been observed at the site so far.

“By avoiding fossil fuel emissions, wind power promotes clean air and water for wildlife,” Saville said. “Properly sited wind energy has been endorsed by leading environmental and wildlife groups including the Audubon Society, and Enel diligently studies wildlife patterns to design projects that minimize potential impacts. Wind power’s impact on bird mortality is extremely small when compared to other sources, such as collisions with tall buildings and communications towers, vehicle strikes, lead poisoning, and habitat conversion.”

Mona Khalil, who leads the Energy and Wildlife Research Program at the U.S. Geological Survey, said significant research still has to be done to determine the overall impact of turbines on bat and bird populations. But, it’s clear that wind farms such as the one in DeWitt County present a problem, she added.

Khalil said in most states, including Illinois, it is not mandatory to track or share data measuring bird or bat deaths near wind farms, she said.

“What would be really helpful is if we had better access to this kind of information, then we could really do the kinds of studies that need to be done in order to get a better sense of what the impacts are,” Khalil said.

Meaghan Gade, a program manager with the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies, which represents state and federal agencies and includes the Illinois Department of Natural Resources among its members, said the organization wants to see developers take wildlife into consideration.

“There are no states that are trying to stand in the way of renewable energy development,” Gade said. “What the states are focused on is how can we do that development while mitigating avoidable impacts to wildlife.”

Jason Ryan, a spokesperson with the American Clean Power Association, said wind farms across the country have implemented mitigation tactics to reduce the impact of turbines on wildlife.

Other sources of energy, including hydraulic fracking, pose a much higher risk for birds, he said.

“Wind energy companies are recognized leaders in their efforts to understand the potential impacts to wildlife through pre-construction studies and design projects carefully to avoid and minimize wildlife impacts,” Ryan said in a statement. “Renewable energy offers the safest and cleanest approach to generating electricity, decreasing air and water pollution that negatively impacts humans and wildlife alike.”

According to Khalil, some large farms have implemented technologies that monitor when animals are coming near and have developed strategies to slow collisions. A tower that can detect species flying within 1 kilometer and stop wind turbines on the farm from rotating is one example.

“Installing those types of technologies that can detect if there’s actual risk is really good,” Khalil said. “If facilities incorporate that into their design and practice operational changes when a risk to an animal is there, that would reduce fatalities.”

There are a few other methods that could lower bat and bird deaths, according to Frick.

One is to change the “cut-in speed,” the speed at which turbine blades spin to generate power. Frick said if wind farms changed their power-generating speed to 11 mph, for example, they could halve the number of bats killed, and at 13 mph, fatalities could decrease between 60% and 80%. Cut-in speeds currently vary between 6 and 9 mph, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

The higher the cut-in speed, the fewer bats and birds would be killed because they can’t fly into the structures as easily when the wind speeds are higher, Frick said. Most bat fatalities occur when turbine speeds are low, she said, so requiring that blades spin faster to produce electricity could eliminate some of those deaths.

But that’s often not an attractive solution for farms looking to maximize their electricity production.

Turbines also often continue spinning below the cut-in speed when they are not actively producing electricity. Frick said halting turbines during these periods would not tangibly affect the energy produced, and could be another option to help limit bird deaths.

“You can change the tilt of the blades so they won’t catch any wind at very low wind speeds,” Frick said. “If they’re not spinning, they basically are harmless. And it’s not costing you any power because they aren’t doing much at those speeds anyway.”

Bethany Straw, an assistant coordinator at the North American Bat Monitoring Program, said development companies should also ensure renewable energy facilities are being built outside bird and bat habitats. Straw said bats and birds are usually attached to their homes and migratory paths, and when structures are built near a water source, a nest or prey, they can be particularly dangerous.

Encouraging the wind industry to preserve habitats has been a particular focus for bat conservationists, according to Straw.

Deaths from wind energy are one of the two leading causes of death for bats in the country, according to Straw. The other is white-nose syndrome, a fungus that attacks the skin, ear and wind membranes of hibernating bats, and affects their immune system and metabolism. The fungus killed so many bats in the Illinois Caverns in the southwest part of the state that local officials closed them to tourists for more than a decade.

“Habitat change is kind of this nebulous stressor because it can occur in so many different ways, and then those cascading effects you observe can be different for different bats in different habitats,” Straw said. “If we can conserve these really important habitats, that helps the population.”

Michelle Braswell lives in Clinton County, Iowa, halfway between Des Moines and Chicago. In February, she learned that her neighbor had applied for a permit to construct a wind turbine 1,800 feet from an eagle’s nest on her property.

Braswell said she rallied the community around stopping the project, creating yard signs and making a Facebook group with more than 800 members. She said she wants people to be more wary of where they are building turbines.

“So many lobbyists say this is about landowner rights, and a landowner should be able to put wind turbines on their ground wherever they want,” Braswell said. “But what about the eagles? They don’t stand a chance against these huge blades.”

Braswell said there have been multiple delays in the permit process for her neighbor’s structure because of unrelated complications, including a lack of voting members at one meeting and a tornado warning at another. The structure is still waiting for approval.

Overall, Frick said, the larger conflict between renewable energy sources and wildlife runs deeper than just the relationship between wind farms and birds.

Wind and solar power are expected to play dominant roles in expanding the nation’s supply of clean electricity and are crucial to efforts to reach net-zero emissions, studies show. The Biden administration has set a goal of a carbon-free power sector by 2035 and net-zero carbon emissions economy-wide by 2050. In Illinois, a 2021 state law outlaws coal- and gas-fired electricity by 2045.

While habitat loss and collision risks are also concerns with solar farms, there is not as much evidence about the threat to wildlife, according to experts.

“With wind farms, it’s easy to say we know survival is impacted, right?” said Liz Kalies, a lead renewable energy scientist at the Nature Conservancy. “We know there are direct strikes. We know there’s direct mortality from wind farms. Solar is trickier because we don’t have very much direct mortality.”

Kalies said there are a number of ways that solar developers can also prioritize wildlife. Like with wind farms, building solar energy in natural habitats can affect mammals and birds.

“When you cut down forests, when you remove natural habitat, it’s certainly going to be a loss,” Kalies said. “But when you start with degraded lands, mine lands, brownfields, landfills, everything you do from that point on is an improvement.”

Some solar farms in wildlife-heavy habitats have implemented design tools such as animal-friendly fencing, Kalies said, so that nearby animals can continue to use the space. Others have pursued vegetation management, planting wildflowers and other pollinator habitats inside the solar farm to preserve the existing natural habitat.

Kalies said there is still research being done to measure the overall impact of solar farms on the surrounding landscape. But, she said, scientists have observed all types of animals, from bobcats to possums, on solar farms.

Overall, Kalies said, wildlife conservation needs to be a consideration for any renewable energy site. Frick agreed.

“Even if things like solar panels are preferable to wind turbines when it comes to bats, we need to be focusing on not converting any kind of animal habitat into solar fields or any other kind of development site,” Frick said. “It’s all part of a bigger balancing act.”

According to Gade, project manager with the Fish & Wildlife Agencies, there are currently no incentives or regulations that require developers to take wildlife into account.

But conservation should start at the beginning of any development process, she said.

“Remember that we can do both,” Gade said. “We can have renewable energy development, which is necessary to meet emission reduction goals, but we can also have wildlife conservation. Let’s make development happen responsibly.”

“Just to be able to check this off my bucket list is huge,” Holland, 36, said. “It’s amazing. Absolutely amazing.”

The rare titan arum — fittingly dubbed a corpse flower — is on display and in bloom at the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe. The flowering structures, known as the largest unbranched inflorescence in the word, are exceedingly rare. It’s a sight to see — and, well, smell.

The plant emits the rotten stench to attract its natural pollinators, carrion beetles and flesh flies. Amid a crowd of curious visitors, 5-year-old Sally Uttech crinkled her nose.

“It smells bad,” she muttered.

The Botanic Garden has housed titan arums since 2003, and now nurtures 18 of the endangered species. They’re native to rugged rainforests on Sumatra, an Indonesian island along the equator. Most of the remaining plants are cultivated inside gardens around the world.

It can take more than a decade for a titan arum to develop before its first bloom. Even then, the cycle is unpredictable. Scientists are often unsure if new growth is a leaf or a flower bud, which usually emerges every three to four years. For Plant Production Manager Tim Pollak, it adds to the excitement.

“We’re certainly proud of the fact that we’re able to get them into bloom in such a successful way,” Pollak said, who tends to the plants year-round. “Knowing that it is the world’s largest inflorescence is breathtaking,” Pollak said.

The titan arum currently in bloom for the third time, named Sumatra, last flowered in 2017. A second flower, Spike, is set to bloom for the fourth time in the coming week.

When a bud emerges, the plant grows 5 to 6 inches per day for about two weeks, with the spiky spadix rising above the spathe. Finally, the growth slows, the spathe unfurls, and the plant blasts a foul-smelling odor over an hourslong period. The plant turns a maroon, meat-colored hue to attract pollinators.

In years when the flower isn’t in bloom, it sprouts a massive leaf, which stretches up to 15 feet in the air.

The growth of more corpse flowers is largely a collaborative effort with other gardens around the country. The Botanic Garden freezes and ships pollen so that the titan arums can reproduce with other members of the species.

“We’re acting as a pollen bank with other facilities,” Pollak said. “The botanic garden world is very cooperative, in the sense that we need pollen, you need pollen, we’re willing to share it.”

Dozens huddled around the two titan arums on a recent morning, which sat inside wooden planters. Many visitors took photos beside them. Others dared to whiff the plant as they approached.

Holland drove three hours from the Quad Cities with his family just to catch a glimpse. He first heard about the elusive plant 15 years ago. When he heard that two at the Botanic Garden were set to bloom, he closely monitored them online.

“I told my boss, ‘When I get the alert, I’m gone. I’m going to disappear for 24 hours or so,’” Holland said with a laugh. “My wife texted me yesterday that Sumatra opened, and I’m like, ‘We’re going first thing in the morning.’”

Travis VanZuiden, 37, and Veronica Spriggs, 38, decided to drive three hours from Iowa just to catch a glimpse of the plant. It lived up to their expectations.

“They’re big, they’re rare, they’re unusual,” VanZuiden said as he stared. “It doesn’t even look real.”

The couple said the smell wasn’t as bad as they thought. Its sheer size seemed to distract from the odor, they said.

“He’s been talking about this for years, and I was like, ‘Well, okay,’” Spriggs said. “But seeing it now, I understand. It’s very cool.”

The final rule will increase fuel economy by 2% per year for model years 2027 to 2031 for passenger cars, while SUVs and other light trucks will increase by 2% per year for model years 2029 to 2031, according to requirements released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The final figures are below a proposal released last year. Administration officials said the less stringent requirements will allow the auto industry flexibility to focus on electric vehicles, adding that higher gas-mileage requirements would have imposed significant costs on consumers without sufficient fuel savings to offset them.

President Joe Biden has set a goal that half all of new vehicles sold in the U.S. in 2030 are electric, part of his push to fight climate change. Gasoline-powered vehicles make up the largest single source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

The 50% sales figure would be a huge increase over current EV sales, which accounted for 7.6% of new vehicle sales last year.

Even as he promotes EVs, Biden needs cooperation from the auto industry and political support from auto workers, a key political voting bloc, as the Democratic president seeks reelection in November. The United Auto Workers union has endorsed Biden but has said it wants to make sure the transition to electric vehicles does not cause job losses and that the industry pays top wages to workers who build EVs and batteries.

Biden’s likely opponent, former President Donald Trump, and other Republicans have denounced Biden’s push for EVs as unfair for consumers and an example of government overreach.

The new standards will save almost 70 billion gallons of gasoline through 2050, preventing more than 710 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions by midcentury, the Biden administration said.

“Not only will these new standards save Americans money at the pump every time they fill up, they will also decrease harmful pollution and make America less reliant on foreign oil,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement. “These standards will save car owners more than $600 in gasoline costs over the lifetime of their vehicle.”

The highway safety agency said it has sought to line up its regulations so they match new Environmental Protection Agency rules that tighten standards for tailpipe emissions. But if there are discrepancies, automakers likely will have to follow the most stringent regulation.

In the byzantine world of government regulation, both agencies essentially are responsible for setting fuel economy requirements since the fastest way to reduce greenhouse emissions is to burn less gasoline.

Fuel economy figures used by The Associated Press reflect real-world driving conditions that include factors such as wind resistance, hills and use of air-conditioning. Because of those factors, the real-world numbers are lower than mileage figures put forward by NHTSA.

New passenger cars would have to average nearly 49 miles per gallon in 2031 under the new rule, up from about 36.5 miles per gallon this year.

“These new fuel economy standards will save our nation billions of dollars, help reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and make our air cleaner for everyone,” said NHTSA Deputy Administrator Sophie Shulman.

John Bozzella, president and CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a leading industry group, said the Biden administration “appears to have landed on a CAFE rule that works with the other recent federal tailpipe rules.” Bozzella was using an acronym for the fuel standards, which are officially known as the corporate average fuel economy rules.

Dan Becker at the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group, slammed the new rules as inadequate.

The highway safety agency is supposed to set strong standards for gas-powered vehicles, he said, “but instead it sat on its tailpipes, leaving automakers free to make cars, SUVs and pickups that will guzzle and pollute for decades to come and keep America stuck on oil.”

The administration “caved to automaker pressure, with a weak rule requiring only a 2% improvement” per year in fuel economy, Becker said, adding that the rule falls short of the agency’s own requirement to set fuel-economy standards at the maximum technologically feasible level.

Bozzella, the industry official, said the government soon might need to reconsider whether the fuel-economy standards are needed “in a world rapidly moving toward electrification” of the vehicle fleet.

The mileage standards are “a relic of the 1970s,″ Bozzella said, “a policy to promote energy conservation and energy independence by making internal combustion vehicles more efficient. But those vehicles are already very efficient. And EVs don’t combust anything. They don’t even have a tailpipe.″

Chris Harto, senior policy analyst for Consumer Reports, said the NHTSA rules were not strong enough to pressure automakers to ensure new vehicles are as efficient as possible.

“Today the administration is merely checking the box on the legal requirement” to set fuel-economy standards, he said, adding that NHTSA is hamstrung by statutory limitations that prevent it from explicitly considering EVs in setting mileage standards.

“It’s likely that this important consumer protection program will become increasingly irrelevant as EV sales continue to grow,” Harto said.

Among the key measures in a new bill, passed by both houses: a ban on construction of the controversial underground pipelines for up to two years, or until federal regulators complete their work on new safety regulations, whichever comes first.

“We’ve got a moratorium — that’s a good thing and we might get more safety measures depending on what (the federal regulators) do,” said Pam Richart, coordinator of the Coalition to Stop CO2 Pipelines.

Still, she said, members of her coalition were dismayed that the bill didn’t ban or severely limit eminent domain, in which land can be taken from a nonconsenting owner for the public good.

“There are a lot of good protections in this bill, but what we had hoped to get was landowner protections, and I think we fell short there,” Richart said.

Illinois Manufacturers’ Association President and CEO Mark Denzler, is part of a coalition of business organizations, agriculture groups and organized labor that supports the pipelines.

Denzler said his coalition’s goal is to attract jobs and capital investment to Illinois and to reduce planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

Emissions reductions are central to carbon transport and storage projects and the reason they receive generous financial incentives from the federal government.

The projects use carbon capture technology to trap CO2, a greenhouse gas that is produced during many industrial processes. Pipelines then transport the CO2 to naturally occurring rock formations deep underground where the carbon dioxide can be permanently stored.

Denzler said the legislation was born of “a tough negotiation.”

“We certainly didn’t get everything we wanted, but I think the important thing is it sets a regulatory framework so that operators know what the ground rules are,” he said.

Denzler downplayed the importance of the state moratorium, the second in the country after California’s, according to the Great Plains Institute, a nonprofit that works to advance energy goals.

At the end of the day, he said, this is a “short-term moratorium” that “really is not going to have an impact.”

The bill addresses the capture of carbon dioxide by various industries, including corn ethanol producers, the transport of CO2 via pipelines, and storage.

Underground storage of CO2 — part of a national effort to reduce planet-warming greenhouse gases and fight climate change — has never been done on the scale contemplated in Illinois and other Midwestern states.

Now, with billions of dollars of federal incentives for carbon storage at stake, and the national race to reduce global warming heating up, companies are seeking approval for massive new projects.

Developers are drawn to the region’s corn ethanol plants, which emit a relatively pure stream of CO2, making carbon capture cheaper and easier, and to the kind of underground rock formations found in Illinois, which has vast deposits of porous sandstone. The sandstone is considered an ideal medium for storing CO2.

Environmentalists and landowners worry about the risk of pipeline leaks, in which a potentially suffocating gas can be released into the air, as well as the possibility of contamination of underground water sources by underground storage areas or the injection wells that feed them.

After a 2020 carbon dioxide pipeline rupture in Mississippi, in which at least 45 people sought medical care —  some after losing consciousness — federal regulators announced they would update carbon dioxide pipeline safety regulations.

Supporters point out that CO2 pipelines have been operating for decades in the United States — largely in the service of the oil industry, which uses CO2 for oil extraction — and that a large CO2-storage pilot project in Decatur has performed well.

A 2023 report to the state by the Prairie Research Institute noted that Illinois had not addressed some of the basic legal and regulatory issues involved in carbon capture and storage, including who actually owns the “pore space,” the openings in underground rock where CO2 can be stored.

The 104-page Illinois bill, which Gov. J.B. Pritzker is expected to sign, addresses that question: The owner of the land on the surface owns the pore space below.

Among the other key features of the legislation are a requirement that carbon pipeline companies use advanced computer modeling to predict where gaseous CO2 could flow in the event of a pipeline leak or rupture, and provide the results to the state, which will publish them on a website.

CO2 exposure can cause confusion, unconsciousness and even — at high doses — death.

Protections for the government and taxpayers include a requirement that carbon storage owners monitor their sites for at least 30 years after storage is completed. The legislation also sets up fees for carbon pipelines and storage facilities, financial and insurance requirements for storage operators, and state funds to pay for monitoring and inspections and emergency planning and training.

Great Plains Institute Vice President for Carbon Management Patrice Lahlum called the Illinois bill “a robust effort and start.”

“It’s heartening to see that so many voices, and the range of voices, were at the table to think about it and talk about it and develop the legislation,” she said.

Denzler said that after more than a year of discussion, Pritzker’s office reconvened the authors of competing bills.

“I give the governor’s office a lot of credit for bringing business and labor and environmentalists and agriculture together to get the compromise,” he said.

Richart, co-director of the Champaign-based environmental group Eco-Justice Collaborative, said her coalition’s work isn’t done. Among their top concerns: a provision that could force landowners to lease space to an underground CO2 storage site.

If owners of 75% of the land required for an underground carbon dioxide storage site sign agreements with the site operator, the other affected landowners can be required to join in the project, according to the legislation.

Also concerning to landowners and environmentalists: They didn’t get additional protections for the Mahomet Aquifer, which supplies drinking water to nearly a million people in central Illinois.

Richart said that her coalition will continue to work on issues including landowner rights, the Mahomet Aquifer, and setbacks, or requirements that pipelines not be built too close to homes, schools or health facilities.

There are currently no setbacks for carbon dioxide pipelines in Illinois.

“There are pretty important provisions that didn’t get in there, that we’re just going to have to keep working on,” Richart said.

Chicago Tribune’s Olivia Stevens contributed.

nschoenberg@chicagotribune.com

Rain and contaminated air are major sources of the pollution detected by a team of researchers from Indiana University and Canada’s top environmental agency. So are discharges from sewage treatment plants and industries.

The new study found airborne concentrations of PFAS — per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — are much higher near Chicago and other urban areas than at rural monitoring stations in northern Michigan and upstate New York. Previous research recorded similar patterns for flame retardants and other toxic chemicals.

But unlike many other contaminants, PFAS in rain were consistent throughout the Great Lakes region, likely because the chemicals are so widespread in the environment.

Levels detected in rain were the same near Chicago and at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, 223 miles northeast across Lake Michigan near Traverse City.

As the most comprehensive tracking of PFAS in the lakes to date, the study provides another example of how it is impossible to avoid exposure to the chemicals — some of which build up in human blood, cause cancer and other diseases and take years to leave the body.

“We need to take a broader approach to control sources releasing PFAS into the atmosphere and into bodies of water,” Marta Venier, an environmental chemist at Indiana University and co-author of the study, said in an interview. “Eventually that pollution ends up in the lakes.”

PFAS are called forever chemicals because their bonds of carbon and fluorine are nearly impossible to break — a quality that makes them attractive to manufacturers of products resistant to grease, heat, stains and water. But for decades 3M, DuPont and other PFAS makers hid from government regulators and the public what the corporations knew about the health risks.

In April, President Joe Biden’s administration required every U.S. water utility to begin routinely testing for several PFAS in drinking water. Any utility that exceeds newly adopted federal limits will get five years to overhaul treatment plants to filter the compounds out of tap water.

Based on limited testing conducted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and some states, thousands of utilities face expensive upgrades to their treatment plants. For now, though, it appears Chicago and other Illinois communities that depend on Lake Michigan for drinking water will not be required to do anything other than test for the chemicals.

Testing by the Chicago Department of Water Management and the Illinois EPA detected forever chemicals in treated Lake Michigan water but at levels below the new federal standards.

Forever chemicals: They’re in your drinking water and likely your food. Read the Tribune investigation

All told the Great Lakes provide drinking water to more than 40 million people in the United States and Canada, including 6.6 million in Illinois.

The new study found all of the lakes are contaminated with two PFAS that initially drew attention from scientists and regulators: perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), used by 3M for decades to make Scotchgard stain repellent, and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), sold to DuPont by 3M to manufacture Teflon coatings for cookware, clothing and wiring.

PFOS and PFOA no longer are made in the United States. Chemical manufacturers claimed other versions containing fewer carbon-fluorine bonds would be safer, but their own studies found the alternatives are just as dangerous, if not more so.

Levels of two alternative PFAS, known as PFBA and PFBS, are increasing in Lake Michigan and Lake Superior, the Indiana University and Canadian researchers found. PFOS, the original Scotchgard chemical, also is on the rise in the two lakes.

Lake Ontario had the highest PFAS concentrations, likely because it is downstream from the other Great Lakes. The chemicals also are flushing out of Lake Ontario more rapidly because it empties into the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Atlantic Ocean.

Venier said she welcomes the Biden administration’s drinking water regulations for PFOA, PFOS and a handful of other forever chemicals. At the same time, she noted, industry has put some 15,000 PFAS into the marketplace during the past half-century and federal regulators have continued to approve new versions.

“We know enough about these chemicals,” Venier said. “It’s a matter of how much is enough to decide to stop putting more of them into our environment.”

Since then, the creek has eroded its new banks and risks flooding a nearby neighborhood.

“The Buffalo Creek streambank, located south of Bristol Trails Park along Stanton Road, is experiencing severe erosion from significant rainfall events with existing timber retaining walls collapsing and the loss of property imminent if the streambank is not stabilized,” said Trustee Marc Spacone said at the May 20 Village Board meeting, reading the resolution.

The project had been planned for years but because of costs, had been on hold. However, Public Works Director Mike Brown said local and state agencies recently awarded the village a grant that will cover most of the cost. So, with that, work is set to begin this year.

Brown addressed the board and reminded them of the severe rain storm of 2013 that created the need for bank stabilization in the first place.

“It was one of the worst rain events I’ve seen in Lake Zurich,” Brown said. “I’ve watched this stream bank move, which is rare. That storm picked this stream bank up and moved it.”

He said over the years the village worked with state and federal agencies in developing a plan to stabilize the creek to prevent severe flooding, but the cost had proven too great until the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and Lake County Stormwater Commission agreed to fund the project to near completion.

He told the board the state wanted a “shovel-ready” project that wouldn’t take long to get started and, and with years in the planning, the Buffalo Creek project was nothing if not ready to go.

“They’re going to fund this thing at 90% – maybe more – but it looks like it’ll be a 90%/10% buy-in,” Brown said.

He said it makes financial sense for the village to spend what it needs to now rather than wait on a better deal.

“It’s never cheaper than it is today, and lo and behold it seems to have worked out,” Brown said. “It pays to have it ready to go.”

The village sought bids in March to do the work and, out of six proposals, awarded the contract to Waukengan-based ILM Environments.

As part of the project, flora will be removed from 1,400 feet of streambank and it will be replaced with native species.

Jesse Wright is a freelancer.

Three plover eggs were documented Saturday in Waukegan, and 30 miles down the Lake Michigan shoreline, another egg was confirmed at Montrose Beach.

“This is an historic event for the Great Lakes Piping Plover Project,” said Brad Semel, endangered species recovery specialist for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

Three of the four parents-to-be, Blaze, Pepper and Searocket, hatched in a captive-rearing facility in Michigan last summer. They were released as chicks near Montrose Beach and Illinois Beach State Park in Zion last July, and have returned from their southerly wintering locations to start families.

The fourth plover is Imani, born in the wild at Montrose Beach to Monty and Rose, the famous plover pair that first captured Chicago’s attention in 2019.

Captive-reared plovers have never laid eggs in Illinois before, only in Michigan, Semel said.

If all goes well, in another month, the new parents will be doting on up to four hatchlings at each nest, he said.

The three captive-reared plovers began as eggs laid on a New York beach in the spring of 2023. When a hawk killed one of their incubating parents, the eggs were whisked away to a Michigan facility where they would have a better chance to survive. About a month after they hatched, Semel picked them up and drove them in a cat carrier to Illinois to release them.

“It’s been a very long time since piping plovers were nesting in two different locations along the lakeshore in Illinois,” Semel said.

Volunteer monitors at both locations are overjoyed and cautious as they work to educate people about the need to protect the rare birds and the shoreline ecosystem in which they live.

Piping plovers in Chicago: How the ‘love story’ between Monty and Rose unfolded at Montrose Beach

Carolyn Lueck, a volunteer plover monitor with the Lake County Audubon Society’s Sharing Our Shore-Waukegan program has been visiting Blaze and Pepper almost daily since the plovers returned from two different wintering homes within a day of each other in May.

“By Saturday, we had three eggs and were anticipating a fourth,” said Lueck, a former Lake Forest and Chicago resident who now lives in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin. If the captive-reared plovers can raise wild piping plovers, that will show the “great experiment,” to save the endangered shorebird species can be successful, she said.

“Blaze and Pepper have been very diligent,” Lueck said. “They never leave that nest unattended. They’re protecting it from the grackles and other threats.”

However, volunteer monitors acting as plover protectors had to intervene recently when a grackle, a type of blackbird that eats crops and garbage and also raids bird nests, got inside the cage.

“On Saturday, Pepper was on the nest, and he got up a few times to get a couple of bugs,” Lueck said. “Blaze was out foraging for a very long time. She has to have been using lots of energy to lay her eggs.”

Piping plovers typically lay one egg every other day, for a total of four. After that, they incubate the eggs and the young hatch simultaneously about a month later.

On Montrose Beach, Tamima Itani, lead volunteer and interagency coordinator for the Chicago Piping Plovers monitors, said she marvels that Searocket, at only 11 months old, was able to return to where she was released, mate and lay an egg.

“I also celebrate the fact that Imani’s need for a mate is now fulfilled after two seasons without one,” Itani said.

Imani’s parents, Monty and Rose, attempted to nest in Waukegan in 2018 and then successfully raised young at Montrose Beach in 2019, 2020 and 2021.

Monty died in 2022 waiting at Montrose for Rose to return.

She never did, but their son Imani has returned to his birthplace the past three years hoping to find a mate. When Searocket arrived this spring, Imani courted her and they mated. Pepper is Monty’s great-nephew.

“As monitors, we have such a feeling of responsibility because so many people, organizations and partners are working to bring this species back from the brink,” Lueck said.

With help from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a cage has been installed around the Waukegan and Chicago nests.

“The cage allows plovers to easily come and go from their nest, but it restricts potential predators like foxes and raccoons,” Semel said. “One critical part is that the birds accept the cage. After placing the cage (in Waukegan), we hurried away and watched their behavior.”

In a little over a minute, the pair returned to the eggs, he said. “I was very relieved to note that both birds accepted the cage,” Semel said.

In addition, surveillance cameras have been placed at Montrose and Waukegan so Semel and others can monitor the plovers’ whereabouts and any potential for disturbance around the clock.

Approximately 500 to 800 piping plover pairs once nested annually throughout the Great Lakes, but by the 1980s that number had declined to about a dozen pairs, resulting in the bird being put on the federal endangered species list.

In 1876, Illinois ornithologist E. W. Nelson wrote that the piping plover was “a very common summer resident along Illinois’ lakeshore.” He noted that 30 pairs were breeding along the beach in Waukegan within a space of 2 miles, according to H. David Bohlen, author of “Birds of Illinois.”

Nelson also mentioned numerous breeding plovers along the Lake Michigan shoreline in the late 1800s near Lake Calumet.

A dramatic population decline occurred in the 1940s in Illinois, according to Bohlen, who cited recreational and industrial buildup in Zion, Waukegan and the Calumet region as reasons why the plovers did not return to nest.

For the past four decades, captive-rearing programs, monitoring and habitat restoration have helped the species throughout the Great Lakes.

Last year, a record 80 pairs of piping plovers were documented in the Great Lakes region, according to Stephanie Cabal Schubel, a team member at Great Lakes Piping Plover Conservation.

“The work of citizens and officials to clean sites and monitor piping plovers shows the resilience of nature,” Semel said.

Lueck said that when she started monitoring the plovers she didn’t realize how important the Lake Michigan shoreline was to a variety of migratory species.

Near where the plovers nest, she said she’s seen shorebird species including ruddy turnstones and sanderlings stopping in spring. “They are so dependent on our shores for food so they can make it to their northern breeding grounds,” Lueck said.

Montrose Beach is also a safe respite for migratory birds, with roughly 12 acres set aside specifically for nesting plovers, according to Itani, of the Chicago Piping Plovers.

The piping plovers have, in effect, created a protected part of the beaches in Chicago and Waukegan that benefits many other animals and plants, according to Itani, Lueck and Semel.

“It’s because of the piping plovers that people are recognizing the ecological value of the lakeshore,” Semel said.