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Article: Green rebirth: for one Illinois park district, going native is the answer.(Leave it Better)
- Article from:
- Parks & Recreation
- Article date:
- May 1, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 National Recreation and Park Association. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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From the ground, it appeared a bath of natural vegetation. But the truth was inescapable from the sky.
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In 2007, a helicopter flyover by the Conservation Fund revealed Naperville, Illinois' Pioneer Park for what it was: a jumbled mess of invasive overgrowth.
For years, the 26-acre community park had been slowly but convincingly overtaken by species such as buckthorn, teasel, and honeysuckle, all non-native to the area. The invasion sapped the park's trio of habitats--prairie, woodland, and wetland--of their rich plant and animal diversity.
A green intervention was clearly in order, suggested Sue Omanson, the ...