Photo courtesy of Openlands
July 2006 | Choice News
Corporations Go Natural
If you walk quickly past the northeast corner of 11th and Wabash streets, you could miss a new kind of natural art. Formerly a parking lot, the area was converted for a while into the Wabash Sculpture Garden, and now has gone native as a natural landscaped park.
The project got a boost from the non-profit Openlands Project through its Corporatelands Natural Landscaping Program, which was designed to help schools, churches, hospitals, apartment complexes and companies figure out how to go natural by connecting them with landscapers and other resources. The program is also part of Clean Air Counts, a public-private initiative that aims to enlist Chicago area individuals, businesses, and communities in the effort to improve air quality.
Currently there are only two such corporate land “green makeovers” in the area, but the program’s organizers are hoping the idea will spread like a prairie fire beyond the downtown Columbia College plot and the Underwriters Laboratories in Northbrook.
Converting the approximately seven acres at the Northbrook facility from turf grass and ornamental plants to native plants has reduced gas-powered lawn mower emissions equal to taking 14 cars off the road. That’s because native plants don’t need to be mowed. For this conversion, UL received an award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2002.
In addition, the native plants help conserve water because they have deeper root systems than typical turf and ornamental plants, so they don’t need to be watered as often. And instead of diverting rainwater into storm sewers, the deep roots of prairie plants hold the moisture in the soil. In addition, native plants are naturally resistant to some pests and diseases, and provide food and habitat for native wildlife.
Water conservation is especially critical now, since the Chicago area suffered from a lack of precipitation last year and water levels are registering some of their lowest long-time averages according to the U. S. Drought Monitor. The U.S. Drought Monitor, which represents a consensus of federal and academic scientists including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the University of Minnesota (www.drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html), has been registering “abnormally dry” to “moderate drought” conditions for the southern tip of Lake Michigan this spring.
Indeed, it was a lack of water that prompted Sue Babyk, a 20-year administrative employee of Columbia College Chicago whose current title is executive assistant, Office of Campus Environment, to make the plot at 11th and Wabash go natural. In 1998, her job was to make sure the area was mowed and watered after a couple of concrete cars — Columbia’s version of Nebraska’s Carhenge sculpture — were removed and replaced with soil, trees and some decorative plants.
The college’s use of natural landscaping is part of a growing trend. The Chicago Park District has its own program to place natural landscaping on park land. And not far from Columbia, Rush University Medical Center has added natural landscaping around its Center Court Apartments student housing 1516 W. Harrison.
— Barbara K. Iverson
Helping Paws
With hands firmly placed on her walker, an elderly woman in a lime-green pantsuit walks in a figure eight around a makeshift course marked off by two chairs. She does this twice. Then she walks the course in reverse, beaming a big grin because there’s a fluffy, sweet-looking Lhaso Apso named Prada keeping perfect step at her side.
The woman is receiving physical therapy at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, and Prada is one of 60 active dogs belonging to Chenny Troupe, a Chicago-based animal-assisted therapy organization that recently celebrated its 15th year.
“Patients are focusing on the dog, so they’re not thinking they can’t do it,” said Judy Keitz, director for the Chenny Troupe volunteer program at the Rehabilitation Institute.
Doctors actually write prescriptions for the therapy, Keitz said. On this particular Wednesday-night volunteer session, a small group of medical students has come to witness the wonders of animal-assisted therapy.
“This gives us a broader perspective as to what types of treatments we can prescribe as therapy,” said Patrick Choi, a second-year student at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University.
But Prada is not the only star attraction. There also are four yellow Labrador retrievers, including one actually named Star. In addition to the special blue Chenny Troupe vest, Star wears a festive yellow collar that looks a bit like a tutu.
Also in the lineup are a miniature poodle named Daisy, who doesn’t exactly roll over but can pretend to go to sleep, a Pharaoh hound named Giza, who loves chasing laser-pointer dots, and a rather pugnacious sheltie named Louise.
The dogs have their own unique personalities, which enables them to reach patients in ways humans cannot. Giza’s obsession with the laser pointer amuses a distinguished–looking gentleman who is working to regain eye-hand coordination. The man seems to delight in pointing the laser light in order to make the dog leap and paw at the carpet.
Star’s calm personality helps another patient focus her eyes for the first time in weeks, according to a staff therapist and family members. Star does this by resting her head on the woman’s thigh. Then Star’s owner, Judith Jaffe, hands the woman a small keepsake picture of the dog. The woman manages to hold the small card and look at it and Star for quite some time. “It’s moments like these that make this work so rewarding,” Jaffe said.
The Rehabilitation Institute is just one of several locations around the city served by the Chenny Troupe volunteers. Others who take advantage of the free service include the Stone Institute of Psychiatry at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, La Rabida Children’s Hospital and Research Center, and the Rice Center Children’s Home and Aid Society.
Chenny Troupe does not own or train the dogs, but carefully screens the animals to make sure they have the right stuff. Above all, they must be obedient. If they disobey a command to stay and break free too soon, they are automatically excluded from the program until the next round of testing.
“The dogs also must be calm and intelligent and love to be petted,” said Jaffe. “And they have to be able to tolerate a lot.” That includes over-zealous hugging, banging canes or medical braces, motorized wheel chairs, voices that are loud or off-key, medical equipment that emits strange noises and, of course, other Chenny Troupe dogs.
For the most part, the Chenny Troupe dogs belong to the volunteers who bring them to therapy sessions. Some of the volunteers, however, do not have dogs of their own. They work with dogs like Scotchie the collie, another active Chenny Troupe dog owned by Jaffe. “She’s on the cover of the Chenny Troupe brochure!” Jaffe boasted.
Chicagoan Catherine Lawler started Chenny Troupe in 1991 with 16 dogs and their owners. That was after she discovered that taking her own yellow Labrador retriever, Chenny, to visit her ailing mother in a nursing home evoked positive responses from other residents. Lawler then began to research animal-assisted therapy in earnest with Frances Ann Rohlen, her partner in a financial consulting business. They named the group after that first beloved dog.
Since the organization was established, Chenny Troupe dogs have interacted with more than 20,000 people, said Janet Rosen Eaton, Chenny Troupe executive director. Though the original dogs have passed on, many of the original volunteers remain active with younger dogs, she said.
Chenny Troupe can always use more dogs and more volunteers. Call 773-404-6467 or visit chennytroupe.org.
— Susan DeGrane
New Summer Recruits in the Fight to Save Area Trees
Ten years after invading Illinois, the Asian longhorned beetle is still a threat. But this summer there will be some new, energetic, young recruits taking part in the local battle against the beetle.
The Beetle Busters program was established in spring to teach Chicago public school students how to recognize the Asian longhorned beetle, and whom to contact if they discover one. The program was started as a joint educational effort between the Chicago Public Schools and the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. The Chicago Park District, Chicago Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts of Chicago and YMCA Metropolitan Chicago will continue the program throughout the summer.
“The program gets the kids outside, into nature,” said Allison Golden of the Notebaert museum.
The Asian longhorned beetle, anaplophora glabripennis, is a native of China and Korea, where it is called the starry sky beetle. This more romanticized name fits the beetle because of the bug’s inky color and white spots. But there’s nothing romantic about finding one, because that means big trouble for the area’s trees. Beetle infestations have devastated the tree populations in some residential streets and parks.
Upon infesting a tree, the female chews through the bark and lays eggs in the trunk during her 42-day life-cycle. After 11 days, the eggs hatch, sending forth new generations of the destructive insect.
Since 1998, Asian beetles have led to the destruction of over 1,500 trees in the Chicago area alone, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The beetles have been found in hardwood trees, including maples, elms, horse chestnuts, ash, willow, and birches. Although the task of eradicating the insects can be daunting, the spread of the beetles has been slowed by banning the exportation of wood from beetle-infested areas and burning infected trees, said Suzanne Bond, public affairs specialist for the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services.
“The USDA makes sure it is at the forefront of fighting invasive species to protect our natural resources,” Bond said.
But while efforts are underway to eradicate the longhorned beetle, Illinois residents may face another threatening species waiting just around the corner. Fears are now circulating throughout Illinois about the Emerald ash borer, Agrilus planipennis, an insect that could take the Asian longhorned beetle’s place as the trees’ biggest enemy.
Discovered in 2002, the Emerald ash borer is currently destroying ash trees in Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. These areas have been quarantined, with bans placed on the export of wood, but recent discoveries of the borer in the upper peninsula of Michigan have put the USDA on alert for Wisconsin and Illinois.
“The best step is diversifying one’s plantings. This way, you won’t be totally wiped out in relation to your landscaping,” Sharon Lucik, public affairs specialist for the USDA’s Emerald Ash Borer Program.
Ash trees make up 10 to 30 percent of the tree population in the Chicago area, and are prime targets for the iridescent green insects to lay eggs just like the Asian beetle. But the borer may not be as easy as the beetle for human eyes to discover.
“[The Emerald ash borer] can sit its entire body on a penny,” Lucik said.
To monitor the currently infested areas, visit emeraldashborer.info. For more information on the Asian longhorned beetle, visit beetlebusters.aphis.usda.gov.
— Taylor Swanson
Sustainable Options for Your Home
“What’s the point of going out and buying healthy organic foods if you’re just going to go home and lie on a toxic sofa?” asked Michele Fitzpatrick, co-owner of the Verde Design Studio in Chicago.
Since September 2005, Verde, which means green in Spanish, Romanian and Italian, has been providing options for people interested in sustainable living. “We want people to know what’s in their furniture,” said Fitzpatrick.
And while living sustainably may appear to cost a pretty penny, Fitzpatrick believes in the quality of their products and that they are meant to last a lifetime.
Much like the renovated walls of the once falling-apart hardware store that houses the studio today, Verde’s owners believe in reclaiming available resources like wood and fabrics and turning them into beautiful pieces that can once again grace people’s homes.
From sofas upholstered with material from old T-shirts to funky cowhide ottomans, Verde’s collections boast a variety of sustainable and unique options for your home.
Many of their pieces contain wool from the Netherlands, recycled polyesters, and peak foam. The leather used on Verde’s pieces are by-products of the meat industry, and come from a tannery dedicated to operating without releasing pollutants into the air or ground water.
Fitzpatrick said they try to use only local American hardwoods and fabrics that are ecologically responsible. “It’s got to be made locally, blanket-wrapped and delivered to your door to be truly eco-friendly.”
Cheaper furniture bought at larger chain stores, she believes, can be very harmful to your health. “Many of those products are not made to last more than a few years and are made with particle board, which is highly carcinogenic,” she said.
You can browse Verde’s showroom and even pick out some artwork created by local Chicago artists at 2100 W. Armitage, Chicago. Or if you’re feeling creative, you can make an appointment with Michele Fitzpatrick to design sustainable pieces for your home by calling 773-486-7750.
— Christen DeProto
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