A forest preserve in Winnebago County received a $10,000 grant to plant pollinator-friendly flowers in the landscape.
ComEd and OpenLands have partnered for more than a decade to give out grants to local environmental organizations.
This year, the Funderburg Forest Preserve received funding to buy pollinator-friendly seed mix to to replace invasive species with important plants like milkweed and early spring blooms known as ephemerals.
Mike Brien is the Director of Natural Resources at the Forest Preserves of Winnebago County. He says the forest preserve is an important tract of land.
He says the efforts will ensure there are nectar and floral resources throughout the woodland clearing for native pollinators like bees, butterflies, and moths.
“It’s such a large parcel, so it's almost 870 acres of contiguous habitat, and that's nestled right up with an adjacent Winnebago County Forest Preserve," Brien said. "There's also Natural Land Institute property that abuts it, and then on the south end, it's Byron Forest Preserve District, so it forms this really large corridor of high-quality habitat.”
The preserves are open to the public, and visitors can explore the newly planted area in the coming years.