Chicago Region Tops U.S. National Parks in Native Plant Biodiversity!
Part 1
(Originally published on 1-11-2018 and updated on 1-14-2026)
Great blue lobelia and cardinal flower in the panne at Montrose Beach Dunes along the Lake Michigan shoreline in downtown Chicago, Illinois.
A local bookstore stopped carrying my book that celebrates Chicago’s natural wonders because it wasn’t selling as well as a cheaply produced, highly advertised book commemorating the hundredth anniversary of the national parks. It made me mad. So I got even—a lot better than even—but in my own way. I did some research and uncovered two stunning facts that will transform what people think about the biodiversity and natural wonder of the Chicago region. After all, most people already think that “Chicago nature” is an oxymoron.
The national parks of the United States are famous and revered the world over. Most people have visited them, one way or another, either on foot or on their screens. So when that bookstore bumped my local nature book to jump on the national parks bandwagon, it made me wonder, “How does Chicago nature compare the national parks?” Specifically, how does the Chicago region stack up to the national parks in terms of land area and biodiversity? And what kind of hoopla does Chicago nature deserve? I started my research.
Chicago Wilderness Alliance graciously compiled acreage data for our region, and Wikipedia had a page of acreage numbers for the national parks. I got access to the U.S. National Park Service database for the counts of native vascular plant species in each park. (These are plants like flowers, grasses, and trees, not mosses or liverworts, lichens or mushrooms.) And I compared those national park plant counts to those of the Chicago area, thanks to the comprehensive, scientific volume entitled Flora of the Chicago Region by Gerould Wilhelm, Laura Rericha, and Indiana Academy of Science. The comparison of the 63 U.S. national parks (as of Jan. 14, 2022) revealed these two inspiring and mind-blowing results:
1) The combined acreage of protected natural area within a rough 75-mile radius of downtown Chicago ranks 25th—greater than 38 national parks, including Grand Teton, Rocky Mountain, Mount Rainier, Badlands, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Arches, and Acadia. NOTE: When thinking of radius here, don’t think of a circle, as most everything east of Chicago is covered by Lake Michigan. Rather, think of it as a crescent about 10% larger than a semicircle (half-circle). In other words, the area is similar to a
2) The Chicago region (defined by a 75-mile radius of downtown) ranks 1st in the number of native vascular plant species with a total of 1,756. That’s 212 (or 13.7%) more than the most prolific national park, Grand Canyon, which comes in with a total of 1,544. (Click her for Part 2 of the story that reveals the local species count in what most Chicagoans would consider the “the Chicago area.”)
Wow! These exciting results mean that every single day, from mid-April through mid-September, there’s a national-park quality wildflower blooming event happening somewhere in the Chicago area. And each week during this period, we report on those events right here at ChicagoNatureNOW!. Subscribe for our free weekly forecasts so you that don’t miss a single glorious moment.
Click here to continue to Part 2 of this story.
—Mike
