ENVIRONMENT

Gardens

All 18 parks and 15 facilities have native plantings as part of their landscape. An emphasis was placed on landscaping with native plantings in 2015 to reduce labor costs as well as to improve food sources for insects and birds. The community has seen an increase in monarch butterflies based on a community-wide effort to increase milk weed and other pollinator plantings.

The All-Abilities Garden at Cheney Mansion grows copious amounts of vegetables every summer. The Park District donated over 525 pounds of fresh produce from the garden to the Oak Park River Forest Food Pantry in 2020.

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