Algonquin, Crystal Lake Park District to build new pollinator-friendly gardens

The Crystal Lake Park District’s Nature Center sits on top of a hill at Veteran Acres Park. Its entrance can be hard to see with all the native plants growing in front. Some plants reach easily over 6 feet.

Next spring, the front will have a new look because of a $10,000 ComEd and Openlands grant that will fund a new pollinator garden there. Another $10,000 grant was awarded to the village of Algonquin to fund a pollinator-friendly habitat at its Wynnfield Drive stormwater basin.

The new plants will act as a guide on how to create a pollinator garden at home, Manager of Park Planning and Development Amy Olson said.

“We’re focused on low-growing plants and monarch shelters,” Olson said. “So you can actually see the entrance of the Nature Center.”

The Green Region Grant program awarded 25 recipients in Illinois with the one-time grant. The grants, totaling almost $200,000, “will support nature preservation, mitigate climate change, and provide safe habitats for pollinators and other wildlife,” according to a ComEd news release.

Almost 50 different plants will be in the new Crystal Lake pollinator garden, including native grasses, cone flowers, rattlesnake masters, prairie dropseed and flax-leaved aster flowers. Olson plans for the garden to consist mainly of grasses with clusters of flowers and plants.

She said she hopes it will spark ideas for people to plant their own “pollinator pockets.”

“In a prairie, it’s wonderful to have exuberant plant growth,” she said. “But maybe not so much in your own garden.”

The Rotary Club of Crystal Lake Dawnbreakers will volunteer its efforts to help plant everything this fall. The park district will plant already-growing plants instead of seeds since it can take up to 10 years for seeds to grow to their fullest potential.

“Typically, you need three years with plants to start feeling like they’re home,” Olson said.

The village Algonquin received $10,000 to transform the Wynnfield stormwater basin, located at Wynnfield Drive and Richmond Lane, into a pollinator-friendly habitat.

“We’re focused on low-growing plants and monarch shelters.”

—  Amy Olson, Crystal Lake Park District's manager of park planning and development

The village will take a similar approach to the Crystal Lake Park District and plant a mixture of young plants and seeds in the area this fall and spring, Algonquin Village Manager Michael Kumbera said.

The 4.6-acre area is currently covered in turf grass. The plants, which will be native to wet and mesic prairie lands, will develop deep roots that will absorb rainwater in a more effective way than the current turf grass, he said.

The village used about $1.4 million in grant funds “in the last several years” to complete park projects, Kumbera said.

“We get a lot of projects done through grant funding,” Kumbera said. “We are appreciative for those programs that exist.”