A Modest Proposal for Northerly Island: Illinois Microzones

A couple of weeks back, I went to a community meeting about plans to develop a park at Northerly Island. The City did a great job of gathering input from the hundreds of people who came out.

Proposal for development of Northerly Island in Chicago

The plan that got my attention called for a collection of several mini-environments on the park - the "Reef" Proposal (see image above). Why not feature some of the micro-zones that are particular to Illinois and Lake Michigan?

I've always been fascinated by the idea of microzones ever since my first visit to Monterey Bay in California. That's when I read John Steinbeck's Cannery Row and learned about the real-life Doc Ricketts, the marine biologist who authored the pioneering work Between Pacific Tides. Ricketts was onto one of nature's amazing facts: with every little variation in environmental conditions, a unique population of creatures emerges to take advantage of those conditions.

I experience this first-hand this past summer, when I started to pay attention to the wildflowers in some of the parks near the lake. I was fascinated to find that the species that show up at Montrose are different that those down by North Pond, which are different than those down by McCormick Place!

Wouldn't it be great if people came from places far and wide to learn about our Lake Michigan biomes in a jewel-like park right in downtown Chicago?

UPDATE 2018: Northerly Island today

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