Land Gettogether

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Land Get-together
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Overview

• Overview
• CPS Recycling Overview - Special Guests
• Presentation and QA on Land Issues
• Overview of Waste Surveys
• Overview of Projects (in 2 groups)
• Wrap-up
• Tour of grounds (optional)

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Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation
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(No Transcript)
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Land IssuesHistory Big Picture
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Daniel Burnham
History of Open Space in Chicago

• Open Space Plan
• Grant Park

"Make no little plans they have no magic to stir
mens blood and probably themselves will not be
realized. Make big plans aim high in hope and
work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram
once recorded will never die, but long after we
are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself
with ever-growing insistency.

Plan for Chicago 1909
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Olmsted, Jensen, Perkins
History of Open Space in Chicago
Olmsted

• Frederick Law Olmsted
• Created Jackson Park for the Columbian Exposition
  in the 1890s
• Linked regional parks through the boulevard
  system, Chicagos Emerald Necklace
• Jens Jensen
• Helped develop regional park system
• Helped form Forest Preserve District
• Dwight Perkins
• Helped form Forest Preserve District in 1916

Jensen
Caption
Perkins
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Recent HistoryPopulation Growth Sprawl
Recent History
2000 Population 8.09 million
1970 Population 6.98 million
Northeastern Illinois Population by Quarter
Section
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Land Issues Resources Challenges
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Resources Challenges
Parks Forest PreservesWhere are they?

• Chicago Park District Created 1933
• Over 7,000 Acres
• Forest Preserves Created 1916
• Over 68,000 acres (11 of Cook County)

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Resources Challenges
Parks Forest PreservesWhat are their benefits?

• Environmental Benefits
• Keeps water on-site
• Conserves biodiversity provides habitat
• Water/Air quality
• Community Benefits
• Community involvement through stewardship
  monitoring
• Environmental education
• Recreation
• Meeting spaces

Forest Preserve Stewardship Day
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Resources Challenges
NEW MAP Chicago Parks, Forest Preserves
Community GardensWhere are they?

• Vacant Lots
• Schools
• Community Centers
• Parkways

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Vacant LotsWhere are they?
Resources Challenges
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Resources Challenges
Community Gardens Vacant LotsWhat are their
benefits?

• Ecological
• Financial direct and indirect
• Sociological individual and community
• Beautification and recreation
• Educational
• Encourages community development
• Provides opportunity for physical work
• Resource for local organizations and groups

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Resources Challenges
Waste ManagementWhat are the Options?
US EPA
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Resources Challenges
Waste ManagementWhere Does Chicagos Trash Go?

• Only one active landfill within city limits
• Landfills in southeast Wisconsin, central
  Illinois, northwest Indiana
• In 2003, 57 of all of Chicago's waste was
  recycled or composted

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Resources Challenges
Waste ManagementWhat are the Challenges?

• Landfills
• NIMBY
• Methane and leachate
• May fail eventually
• Very slow decomposition
• Combustion
• Produces fly ash that must be landfilled
• May release toxins into air
• Recycling and composting
• Not everything can be recycled or composted
• Reduction and reuse are even more efficient

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Resources Challenges
Waste ManagementWhat are the Benefits?

• Landfills
• Relatively low cost
• Methane capture for use as fuel
• After-uses (Chicagos built on landfills)
• Combustion
• Generates energy

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Benefits of Recycling
Uses less energy during manufacturing Reduces
emissions of 10 major air pollutants, including
greenhouse gases
Reduces need to harvest and transport raw
materials
Creates jobs Saves money
Improves health
Reduces 8 major water quality indicators and
pollutants
Reduces landfill waste
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Solutions

• Benefits of composting
• Improves soil
• Improves structure, porosity, and density
• Reduces erosion and runoff
• Increases water use efficiency
• Proves plant nutrients and improves chemical
  content
• Provides beneficial micronutrients
• Suppresses plant disease

• Reduces methane and acidic leachate that form
  when food scraps are sealed in landfills
• Helps remediate soil, air, and water contaminated
  with hazardous waste

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Solutions What You Can Do
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Volunteer
Solutions

• Stewardship Days
• C3s Explorer Track events www.cityofchicago.org/
  Environment/C3 or 312-743-9283

Forest Preserve Stewardship Day
Plant Your Garden Green

• Plant native!
• Greencorps assistance

Black-Eyed Susan
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Reduce, Reuse, RecycleRe-think, Re-design,
Re-claim
Solutions

• Plastic, paper, glass, metal and yard waste
  blue bags
• Batteries Walgreens and libraries
• Household hazardous chemicals and electronics
  new site and collection days
• Food scraps compost
• What else? Get creative!

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Strive Towards Zero Waste
Solutions

• The amount of waste generated per capita
  continues to rise, despite increased recycling
• Need to reduce or eliminate waste at the source

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City Recycling Initiatives
Solutions

• The Blue Bag Program
• Recycling Pilot Program
• Other city Programs
• Batteries
• Household hazardous waste new facility
• Construction and Demolition Ordinance

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City Composting Activities
History and Big Picture - Recycling

• Recycling Grants
• distributed 1200 reduced price compost bins
• 300 tons of organic material saved from entering
  the waste stream annually
• 18 Master Composters
• 4 Compost Education Centers
• Educational materials

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Conservation Club Land Survey and Projects
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Waste Surveys 2 - 3 meetings
Survey and Project

• Option 1 Messier and more precise!
• Prep pick sites, inform maintenance staff, make
  labels, post signs the day before or first thing
  in the morning
• Implement Weigh, sort, and record!
• Follow-up Extrapolate, think about consequences
  and solutions
• Option 2 More efficient!
• Prep pick sites, inform maintenance staff, make
  labels, post signs the day before or first thing
  in the morning
• Implement Observe and record!
• Follow-up Extrapolate, think about consequences
  and solutions

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Projects 2 - 4 meetings plus on-going maintenance
Survey and Project

• 4Rs stay here with Suzanne and Joyce
• Vermicomposters go to corner with Sarah

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Whats Next?
Wrap Up

• October December
• Implement Waste Survey and Land Service Project
• We will send you Air Energy project guides
• By December 15th at 4pm
• Inform us of Air Energy service project choice
• Thursday, Jan 18th (5pm-630pm)
• Air Energy Get-together (includes reporting on
  Land survey and project)

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Wrap Up- Invoices- Survey materials- Tour
- Feel free to hang around after tour-
Questions? See you in January!
Wrap Up