Fox Valley Park District Native Management

This multi-year project included the overall native area maintenance of 12 facilities located within the Fox Valley Park District, totaling more than 167 acres of native plant communities including prairies, woodlands, wetland, and naturalized detention basins. Native area management requires continual performance evaluations that translate into the adaptive management plan. Along with the District, we assisted with defining project goals and performance standards for each park. Heavy involvement with budgeting and resource planning helped us partner with the District to execute the required work with a combination of each other’s resources. Also, multi-year site evaluations determined opportunities to convert 28 acres of turf grass into native prairie, resulting in multiple grants to complete the work.

Additional Info

Project Highlight:

A detailed annual report is presented to the District at the end of each growing season which provides a summary of activities performed, an evaluation of native vegetation establishment (including a floristic inventory), and observations on habitat, leading to recommendations on how to proceed in the upcoming year.
Our work also included the identification of grant opportunities and assistance with grant submittals for the turf-to-prairie conversions.