Downers Grove Park District receives $10,000 grant for Patriots Park

The Downers Grove Park District was awarded $10,000 as a grant recipient of the ComEd Green Region Program for the Patriots Park Pollinator Habitat Restoration Project this past July.

The Patriots Park Pollinator Habitat Restoration Project will utilize the ComEd Green Regions Grant, which will be matched by the park district for a total of $20,000. The project will include installation of a new landscape of native vegetation to create an improved habitat for wildlife, benefit pollinators, improve aesthetics and reduce mowing at Patriots Park.

The new native landscape at Patriots Park will feature low profile prairie and pollinator enhancement plants as well as wet to mesic prairie and wetland edge mixes. Species will include common milkweed, butterfly weed, swamp milkweed, sideoats grama, little bluestem, aster, purple coneflower and additional pollinator plants.

Plant mixes will be suited to each landscape within the park based on typical soil moisture conditions. Visitors will begin to see the results of the fall plantings next spring and areas will fill in and mature over the next two to five years.

Located at 501 55th Place, Patriots Park features a 0.45-mile paved walking path which loops around the 5.8-acre Barth Pond. Constructed in 1978 to serve as a storm water detention facility, the pond is now a popular fishing spot and is stocked regularly by the district.

Along the walking path, park-goers enjoy plentiful shade from mature oak and maple trees and can take a rest at park benches to observe wildlife. At the west end of the park, a large playground features two ADA-accessible play areas, and at the east end of the park, visitors can picnic in the large pavilion and cross the newly constructed pedestrian bridge where the pond is fed by a meandering creek.

This is the second ComEd Green Regions grant that the Downers Grove Park District has been awarded. In 2019, the district received $5,000 for the Doerhoffer and Whitlock Park Detention Area Plantings, which helped transform two mowed detention basins and into to native vegetation areas with interpretive signage. This project eliminated mowing, enhanced the habitat, improved water quality and provided educational opportunities and passive park uses.