Environmental Stewardship
Pollinator Programs
DuPage Monarch Project Video Features West Chicago Among Other Cities
In August 2020, Mayor Ruben Pineda contributed to a video produced by the DuPage Monarch Project. In it, Mayor Pineda speaks about his signing the Mayor’s Monarch Pledge in 2017, and the momentum it created for monarch conservation in West Chicago.
Since signing the Pledge, West Chicago residents and community organizations have installed new pollinator gardens, launched several public art projects focused on monarchs, and inspired a greater interest in monarch conservation. Their collective efforts rewarded West Chicago with a national designation from the America in Bloom organization as the Best Pollinator Program among its member communities in 2019.
And remember the BEEs helped West Chicago win...
"Best Pollinator City"
Award
The spotlight has been on honeybees for years. It’s the bee that comes to mind when discussing pollinator decline, likely due to their strong connection with people. Honeybees perform essential pollinator services for several food crops, they make honey and their picture has been featured on a popular breakfast cereal box until it was replaced by a ghost-like silhouette to highlight the honeybee decline.
Beekeeping is a longstanding tradition at West Chicago’s Kline Creek Farm, the 1890s living history farm at Timber Ridge Forest Preserve. Restored farmstead structures and historically costumed interpreters, operate the farm using the tools and techniques of the past. Since 1984, volunteer beekeepers have managed the farmstead’s apiary by caring for the bees, extracting and processing honey, and leading educational programs and tours that focus on the honeybees’ role as the primary pollinator for two-thirds of all U.S. crops. The sale of honey at the Timber Ridge Visitor Center helps to support farm programs and operations.
WGN-TV News did a feature on another local farm in the bee-saving business.
Bill Whitney is the owner at City Bee Savers on West Washington Street and has been breeding and cultivating honeybees at his farm for more than two decades.
Millions of bees on the farm are already producing hundreds of thousands of pounds of raw honey that will be distributed to farmers markets all across the Chicago area.
The goal is not only to create honey but help save the honeybees.
The farm hosts garde clubs, teaches planting for pollinators and even beekeeping classes in the community.
Sam Chripczuk’s 18” x 24” encased bee colony gets things buzzing on Main Street at West Chicago Blooming Fest each year.
Thousands of people swarm downtown to attend the community’s signature spring event, many leaving with a jar of his local honey.
Sam’s setup at the Fest gives children and adults a chance to marvel at the inner workings of a hive, and to taste the sweet produce of the busy bees.
The awareness and information he and his wife provide about these pollinators have promoted a better understanding of their importance to our environment.
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