Resilient Nature, Resilient Communities
By Megan Donahue
Earlier this spring, I was walking through the woods. It was one of those first perfect days–warm, but not too hot, the sky a brilliant blue. As I wandered along the paths, I noted the signs of spring migratory birds calling to each other, carpets of spring ephemeral wildflowers, the leaves just starting to emerge. Every year, spring feels like a miracle to me, and this year, especially. On both the macro and micro level, it had been a long winter.
I rounded a bend and saw a fallen tree. Not unusual– the winter winds take some out every year. What struck me was all the new growth sprouting out of it. Branches with bright yellow-green leaves were beginning to unfurl. I looked closer; there was just a small section of the trunk still connected to the roots. Apparently, that was enough to keep this tree going.
The metaphor was hard to miss.
Merriam Webster defines resilience as:
1: the capability of a strained body to recover its size and shape after deformation caused especially by compressive stress
2: an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change
In tumultuous times, we know that cultivating resilience is important. When we are that strained body, we want to recover and adjust. Nature offers us many examples of resilience, from the fresh regrowth after forest fires to the dandelions that grow in the cracks in the sidewalk.
“To me, resilience means a way of grounding yourself, recovering. It’s a way of having a self-care plan. I think nature’s just wonderful because it’s so resilient. I mean, it don’t matter if it’s a storm, if it’s a flood, it’s a fire. It always finds a way to heal itself,” says Bruce Wright, founder of Nature’s Emporium in Waukegan.
Here in Lake County, there is a powerful story of resilience and recovery: The Waukegan Dunes.
Lessons from the Dunes
ROOTED IN THE SHADOW OF COAL
This summer, Brushwood is exploring the resilience of this ecosystem in a new exhibition Rooted in the Shadow of Coal: Botanical Treasures of the Waukegan Dunes. In this exhibition, we celebrate the plants of the dunes, and also address the Dune’s environmental importance.
The natural environment along the Waukegan lakeshore is special. It includes a rare landscape of dunes, swales, bluffs, and ravines found in very few other places in the world. But the Waukegan Harbor and lakefront were long contaminated by over a century of industry.
As Brushwood Center reported in the 2023 Health, Equity, and Nature: A Changing Climate in Lake County, Illinois (HEN report).
“Waukegan’s industrial pollution traces back to its development as a port city. In 1855, the economic future of the town seemed assured with the first train running through Waukegan connecting Chicago to Milwaukee. Waukegan Harbor was one of the busiest on the Great Lakes, and throughout the 1900s Waukegan continued to grow.
Throughout the twentieth century, the city grew as an industrial center with companies such as Abbott Laboratories, Outboard Marine Corporation, and Medline.”
The industrial activity resulted in a staggering amount of pollution, and today Waukegan is home to five Superfund sites (there are eight total in Lake County). Superfund sites are sites of environmental contamination that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) designates as significant hazards that must be cleaned up. It also requires the parties responsible for the contamination to either perform cleanups or reimburse the government for EPA-led cleanup work.
At the end of the 20th century, the Waukegan shoreline was overwhelmed with contamination. But with community action and advocacy, the Harbor and surrounding dunes were rehabilitated in an extraordinary way.
From the HEN Report:
…Fortunately, community action and advocacy has led to the continued remediation of these sites, and particularly in Waukegan Harbor. In 1990, the Waukegan Harbor Citizens Advisory Group (CAG) was formed by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) to lead the development of a remedial action plan (RAP) for the Waukegan Harbor Area of Concern.
In 2013, the final environmental dredge of Waukegan Harbor was completed. As of August 2020, the Waukegan Area of Concern (AOC) has only one Beneficial Use Impairment (BUI) remaining: Restrictions on Fish and Wildlife Consumption. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources monitors polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) levels in harbor fish.The CAG continues ‘to work with local, state and federal agencies to assure that the remaining contaminated sites located along the Waukegan lakefront are remediated and the remaining BUI is delisted and the AOC be declared an Area of Recovery.’”
“We say that humans have the least experience with how to live and thus the most to learn—we must look to our teachers among the other species for guidance. Their wisdom is apparent in the way that they live. They teach us by example. They’ve been on the earth far longer than we have been, and have had time to figure things out.”
With remediation, protection, new dune fences, and green infrastructure, the natural environment is making a big comeback. In a recent interview with the Chicago Tribune, Lisa May, Waukegan Lakefront Coordinator, talked about the nature on the shoreline re-emerging. “It was Mother Nature taking back her territory. Mother Nature does what she wants, and she always wins.”
The diverse native wildflowers and plants of the dunes have reemerged. Hundreds of plant species grow in what was once a heavily industrial area. This scrap of nature has survived and thrived thanks to community engagement.
Image: Beach Grasses, by Betty Schulte
Cultivating Resilience in Our Communities and Ourselves
“In the Western tradition there is a recognized hierarchy of beings, with, of course, the human being on top—the pinnacle of evolution, the darling of Creation—and the plants at the bottom. But in Native ways of knowing, human people are often referred to as ‘the younger brothers of Creation,’” wrote Robin Wall Kimmerer in Braiding Sweetgrass.
Image: Heart of the Dunes, by Sinead Carus
Jess Rodriguez, Brushwood’s Coalition Building Manager, is one of our resident experts on community and connectedness. Jess says, “A resilient community is one where you can feel safe and supported, one where you can offer support, knowing that your wellbeing is directly intertwined to the wellbeing of those directly around you.”
This practice doesn’t have to be complicated, Jess explains. “It may be as simple as saying good morning, learning someone’s name, and sharing a skill, resource, or new piece of information with someone. A resilient community starts with connection to what is within your reach and has the possibility of having a profound ripple effect.”
There’s a lot to learn from the Dunes about the power of community and the potential to reshape, reform, and recover. In spite of tremendous adversity, the revitalized Dunes show us what it looks like to make a comeback and celebrate the good things that remain. Similarly, as our communities face climate change, political strife, trauma, and uncertain times, we need each other to be resilient.
At first glance, my fallen tree looks like the story of a rugged individual, eking out its existence despite all the odds. But there’s a community at work there, too. The soil and sunlight are feeding the tree. Insects help pollinate it. Birds rest in its branches. That tree is not alone, and neither are we.
This story was first published in Thrive, Brushwood’s seasonal newsletter. It originally stated that the Waukegan Dunes “re-emerged.” Thanks to our friends at the Waukegan Harbor Citizens Advisory Group for clarifying that while a natural environment has re-emerged, the current dunal system formed in the late 20th century.
