Lydia Scott, CRTI Director, presented the Caucus with a CRTI Urban Forestry Partnership Award. Executive Director Neil James, Sustainability Specialist Cheryl Scott, Geneva Mayor/Environment Committee Chairman Mayor Burns, and Director of Environmental Initiatives Edith Makra accepted the award at a ceremony on Feb. 9th. | Photo credit: Elliot Powell

CHICAGO (Feb. 27, 2023) – The Caucus recently won a Chicago Region Trees Initiative (CRTI) Urban Forestry Partnership Award from CRTI for the Climate Action Plan for the Chicago Region. The award celebrates organizations that work collaboratively to solve a forestry problem and is the fifth award the Caucus has received for its Climate Action Plan (CAP). The CRTI recognized the Caucus for its collaborative efforts to draft a regional CAP. The Caucus’ CAP was created with input from 270 stakeholders from 175 organizations. One of the eight mitigation objectives in the plan is to “sustain ecosystems to sequester carbon.” Some of the forestry-related mitigation strategies for this objective include that local governments should plant trees and sustain the urban forest, promote citizen tree stewardship, and encourage property owners to install and maintain sustainable, native landscapes.

When accepting the award at a CRTI Partner Recognition Celebration on Feb. 9th, City of Geneva Mayor Kevin Burns, Environment Committee and Energy Subcommittee Chairman and Executive Board 2nd Vice Chair, spoke on a panel about his work on the Caucus’ Environment Committee. Mayor Burns and the other panelists centered the discussion around climate change, trees, and heat islands. Another panelist at the event was Dr. Ashish Sharma, a contributor to the Caucus’ CAP, who works as a Climate and Urban Sustainability Lead at the Discovery Partners Institute, University of Illinois System.

Other CRTI awards and winners are listed below and include several municipal officials and governmental bodies. Read more about why CRTI chose the Caucus and other award winners at the CRTI Urban Forestry Awards webpage.

  • Forestry Outreach and Stewardship Award – Christopher Flaherty, who serves on the Elgin Sustainability Commission, and Rolando Favela, who serves on the Chicago Urban Forest Advisory Board
  • Youth Engagement Award – Graham Stocksdale
  • Private Natural Areas Award – Bonnie Johnson
  • Public Natural Areas Award – Forest Preserve District of DuPage County and Lisle Park District
  • Community Advocate Award – West Lakeview Trees Group
  • Special Recognition in Memoriam – Hawthorn Woods Village Trustee Steve Riess
  • Golden Shovel Award for Forest Advocate of the Year – Raed Mansour
  • Golden Shovel Award for Forester of the Year – Andy Smolen, arborist for the Village of Franklin Park

The Chicago Region Trees Initiative is a partnership for coordinated action to improve the health, diversity, and equitable distribution of trees in the Chicago region to benefit people and communities. Established in 2014, it is the largest initiative of its kind in the U.S. Founded by The Morton Arboretum and Openlands, CRTI brings together more than 200 partners from industry, community, and government organizations with a comprehensive plan to lead regional action for trees through 2050.

Climate Action Plan Support

Thirty-six local governments and four councils of governments have passed resolutions in support of the Climate Action Plan for the Chicago Region’s goals and objectives. Additionally, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District formally endorsed the Caucus’ plan. If your community is interested in passing a resolution to endorse the goals and objectives of the regional Climate Action Plan, then please feel free to use this sample resolution, and send a signed copy of your community’s resolution to Director of Environmental Initiatives Edith Makra at emakra@mayorscaucus.org. While the resolution expresses support for the goals of net zero emissions and persistent, equitable climate adaptation, the CAP articulates strategies for achieving those goals that are sensible and tailored for municipal action.

Climate Action Plan Awards

The CRTI Urban Forestry Partnership Award is the fifth award that the Caucus has received for its 2021 Climate Action Plan for the Chicago Region. Other awards for the CAP include the following:

  • In October of 2021, the Climate Action Plan for the Chicago Region and the organizations involved in its creation received the 2021 Climate Leadership Award Innovative Partnerships Certificate. The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) and The Climate Registry (TCR), in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies and America is All In, presented the award virtually to the Plan’s co-authors, the Caucus and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), as well as the Plan’s other collaborators: Argonne National Laboratory; CMAP; the European Union; GCoM; the University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Public Health; the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Center for Urban Resilience and Environmental Sustainability (CURES); and the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit team. The award was given for collaborating to address the lack of guidance for small communities by tackling climate action planning at the regional scale, for engaging 270 stakeholders in the process, for creating the first regional CAP for the Chicago region and the third in the nation, and for sharing knowledge about regional climate planning with other regions around the world.
  • In May of 2022, the national APA Sustainable Communities Division honored the Caucus and NOAA at its ninth annual Awards for Excellence in Sustainability with the Merit Award in the State or Regional category. The award recognizes efforts to plan for sustainability and resilience at a state or regional scale.
  • In September of 2022, the Illinois chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) honored the Caucus with a Public Recognition Award at an award ceremony in Chicago. The Illinois ASLA granted the award to the Caucus for its Climate Action Plan (CAP) because it noted, “Thriving, high-performing public and private landscapes are central to the climate adaptation objectives and strategies.” The Caucus engaged landscape architects in the plan creation through the stakeholder engagement process. Additionally, the Illinois ASLA stated that the high-profile Climate Action Plan, created and used by numerous stakeholders, has heightened public appreciation of landscape-related issues.
  • Also in September 2022, the American Planning Association Illinois Chapter (APA-IL) announced that the Caucus won the Strategic Plan Award for its Climate Action Plan for the Chicago Region. The APA-IL chose the Caucus’ Plan for the award because, “The Climate Action Plan’s multi-agency approach to the process illustrates how planners can partner with science-based knowledge to create a plan for resiliency. The process, metrics and outcomes can serve as a model for communities.”