“The formula for a great city is a combination of people and place. Great spaces, great architecture, great institutions are important, but the unique character of a community is also critical: Are the values inclusive? Do people feel welcome? Do they feel part of a bigger whole?”

Gerald W. Adelmann is executive director of Openlands, a 56-year-old regional land conservation organization working in northeastern Illinois and parts of neighboring states. He is chairman of the Center for Humans and Nature and also chairs the City of Chicago Mayor’s Nature and Wildlife Committee. He has been an advisor in conservation and historic preservation projects in China since the early 1990s and, since 2008, in Myanmar.
 

In Openlands, Jerry Adelmann joined an organization whose interests aligned perfectly with his own: nature, culture, historic preservation, social equity. Since then, Jerry has been a ninja nature practitioner who’s created art exhibitions about nature in Chicago, initiated and helped create national parks in America, and collaborated on cultural and natural protection plans in Asia. Those are just a few examples of the depth and breadth of Jerry’s and the organization’s influence. Openlands also plays an important role in the shaping of policy related to nature and planning.

“Everything we do we do in partnership,” says Jerry. “I’ve been so fortunate, so blessed, to work with amazing people.”

Jerry comes from a tradition of service and deep roots in the community. He’s part of a family that has lived in Lockport, a town slightly south and west of the city, for six generations.

 

How to Find Out More

“People have always been central to the mission of Openlands. It’s very much focused on social justice, social equity as much as it is as the quality of natural systems,” says Jerry. Here’s a video about the organization, one that gives a general overview.

The Land Trust Alliance recently interviewed Jerry, and here’s that link from Saving Land Magazine.

 

How You Can Help

Give a magnificent donation to Openlands (or if you must, a sweet and modest-sized offering) by clicking here.

If you are interested in trees—and who isn’t?—you can volunteer to become a TreeKeeper. The TreeKeepers learn how to help keep the urban forest growing strong. TreeKeepers learn a lot about the physiology of trees and what they need to survive, and then, in return for the training, they agree to spread the word. They become knowledgable ambassadors who teach their neighbors about trees. There are a number of TreeKeeper events each year, from small pruning workshops to large planting events.

 

Begun in 1991, the TreeKeepers program has trained more than 2,000 Chicago residents in how to care for trees and protect the urban forest.

Openlands has helped protect more than 55,000 acres of land in the Chicago metropolitan region, including the Lakeshore Preserve in Highland Park (shown here) as well as pubic parks, forest preserves, wildlife refuges, greenway corridors, urban farms and community gardens. It’s also a central part of the cultural life of the city, with projects that have included major art exhibitions at the Art Institute and in Millennium Park.

THE SHAPE OF THE WORLD IS NOW CARBON NEUTRAL. We’ve reduced what we could and we’ve purchased offsets for the remainder of our greenhouse gas emissions from Tradewater which concentrates on removal of the most potent, highest impact greenhouse gases.

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