Chicago Green Mission

Gethsemane Garden Center is promoting a city-wide project to green our great city!  Chicago Green Mission is a team of volunteers working with the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) to get the entire city of Chicago as a Community Wildlife Habitat.

Chicago Green Mission will be working with local businesses and volunteers to help spread the word of this exciting project.  Chicago will be the first major city in the U.S. to be certified.  1,000 residences need to be approved through NWF, as well as local schools, churches, and businesses, for this certification to take place.

Chicago Green Mission team members will help walk people through the 5 criteria necessary to achieve certification of individual habitats, direct the homeowners to the NWF website for certification or supply them with a mail-in application.  They will work hard to make sure the process is as easy as possible and will acknowledge those habitats that become certified.

This community-wide habitat conservation project is a big push, but the rewards are priceless!  Having Chicago viewed as cutting-edge in this eco-movement this country is going in, engaging families and community supporters in realizing the impotance of natural areas and enabling the people of Chicago, as a whole, to come together as a cohesive community with a feel-good movement we can identify with.

Join us to follow our progress and help everyone to become involved.

      

We, at Gethsemane, feel it is our duty to reach for this goal to bring more awareness to the environment, engage children into the outdoors and ultimately to create a movement that ANYONE in Chicago can celebrate and be a part of.  We Chicagoans are a proud community.  So lets show the rest of the country what people can do when we come together for a common goal!

Certify online
www.nwf.org/gardenforwildlife

4 Basic Elements on a Certified Wildlife Habitat

1. Food - Native plants provide wildlife with nectar, seeds, and berries used by an exciting variety of wildlife.  feeders can supplement natural food sources.
2. Water - All animals need water to survive and some need it for bathing or breeding as well
3. Places to Raise Young - Wildlife need special habitat for bearing and raising young.
4. Cover - Wildlife need shelter from bad weather and hiding places - for both predators and prey.