Stop cutting down 
                trees.

Jackson Park is home to free and safe community green space, 3000+ legacy trees, flower gardens, and much beloved outdoor recreational areas for Chicago's Southside. Residents fish off its banks near the lake and luxuriate in its accessibility and its beauty. 

Jackson Park's green space acts as air cleaner and carbon sink, helping to reclaim Chicago's air.  In one year, a mature tree will absorb more than 48 pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and release oxygen in exchange (USDA). 

The Obama Presidential Center (OPC), both in its installation and in its proposed road closures and widenings, has already clear cut over 300 valuable legacy trees (Protect our Parks), has demolished the Women's Garden (Hyde Park Historical Society) and other green areas, and will replace these public accessed environmental assets with a 20-story building that charges an entrance fee, with a vegetable garden on its roof, surrounded by grassy areas. 

Trees provide the very air that we breathe. The Obama Foundation & TGR Design will/have clear cut approximately 3000 mature trees when their construction is finished.

Jackson Park...
helps provide clean air for the Southside and Chicago's communities. That's important because 1 in 8 children in Chicago suffer asthma (Lurie Children's Hospital). Trees have a strong association with fewer emergency asthma cases in very polluted areas (Science Daily). 

The main OPC site's trees, now gone... were estimated to store 203.8 tons of carbon, sequester 5.8 tons of carbon per year, and remove 341.5 pounds of air pollution yearly (OPC Tree Study). "On average, one tree produces nearly 260 pounds of oxygen each year. Two mature trees can provide enough oxygen for a family of four" (ThoughtCo).

In Jackson Park...
the cutting of 301 trees started in 8.21. The 301 large legacy trees in the Women's Garden and the adjacent parcel have been chopped down to prepare for the Obama Presidential Center site construction.

That included clearcutting these "Top Ten Trees" (from Bartlett Tree Report):
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Chicago's South Side is deserving of two treasures:
The remaining 2,580 mature legacy trees in Jackson Park and the South Shore Nature Sanctuary.

Join Us. Save Jackson Park. STOP CUTTING DOWN TREES.

Update: January, 2023
What trees have been cut down; what trees still survive.

Starting at the end of August, 2021, the Obama Foundation clear cut 301 large legacy trees, leaving approximately 40 mature trees surrounding the Jackson Park Field House, with plans to clear cut them, too. Bartlett Tree Experts estimated that environmental services of all the trees west of Cornell Drive included:

• storing 203.8 tons of carbon
• sequestering 5.8 tons of carbon per year
• removing 341.5 pounds of air pollution per year (Bartlett Tree Experts, 2018).

Amazingly, during the summer and fall of 2022, few trees were cut down for the starting CDOT Obama Presidential Center road reconfigurations and expansions. However, commute times for neighborhood residents skyrocketed (see daily commuter map from 2016 below).

Women's Garden, Jackson Park, 8.2021 (Doug Shaeffer, 2021).

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Women's Garden Gone: Obama Presidential Center site, Jackson Park, 9.13.2021 (Doug Shaeffer, 2021).

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Cutting down trees, 9.2021, Obama Presidential Center site in the Women's Garden area (Doug Shaeffer, 2021).

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Cornell Drive in 2016 carried an Average Daily Traffic total load of 39,000 cars. Cornell Drive was constructed for this purpose. Cornell Drive also served as a main artery for secondary street usage to other Chicago South Side neighborhoods. CDOT road expansion plans will remove Cornell Drive.

CDOT road expansion plans for the Obama Presidential Center (OPC) include clear cutting an additional 400 trees for a grand total of 865 large, mature legacy trees cut down to build the OPC:

• ​301 trees cut down in August through September, 2021;
• 40 trees to be cut down near the Jackson Park Field House;
• 124 trees to be cut down bordering Cornell Drive;
• 400 trees to be cut down by CDOT for road expansions (CDOT, 2022).
• When this construction is finished, Cornell Drive and Marquette Road, important N/S and E/W transportation arteries, will be gone, thus impacting access to and viability of the South Shore and Rainbow Beach neighborhoods of Chicago.

Proposed Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park -- above (ChicagoReporter.com)

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​The Chicago Park District, the Chicago Parks Golf Alliance, and TGR Design  (Tiger Woods) want to destroy most of the trees in SE Jackson Park and the entire South Shore Nature Sanctuary to make a PGA Tournament Golf Course "expansion" for PGA Tournament use and admission paying clients.

Meet the South Shore Nature Sanctuary.

These pictures were taken on 12.31.21. The South Shore Nature Sanctuary was still a beautiful place to be on NY's eve.

Designed by Wolff Clements & Associates in 2002, and built at the cost of $500,000, the South Shore Nature Sanctuary is a small ecosystem that has nurtures its vegetation and tall grasses to maturity, while providing a place for birds and other small wildlife to find refuge in it."-- AJ LaTrace, Curbed Chicago

"There are also various features, such a winding boardwalk and stone fire pit, which are intended to draw people into the ecosystem. And it’s these fire circles and lush prairie that could be replaced by the 12th hole of the redesigned Jackson Park golf course. The dramatic skyline views that residents see from the nature sanctuary are exactly the reason for the intrusion by the golf course—to make for good television footage of golf tournaments with Chicago’s iconic skyline in the backdrop."
​-- AJ LaTrace, Curbed Chicago

Children’s diminishing access to nature is linked to children’s declining mental and physical health, especially in poor and minority children who have less experiences in the natural world. It is vital to keep places like the South Shore Nature Sanctuary open and free to our southside children in Chicago."
 -- CCAM Research Partners

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Images above and below courtesy of SouthShoreNatureSanctuary.org

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   Join
             Us

Support a 5th Ward Aldermanic candidate that supports the preservation of the remaining 2,580 mature trees in Jackson Park and South Shore Cultural Center Park.

Please donate.

Fill out the contact form.

​Take a survey.

Write a letter. 

​
Get in touch:
[email protected]

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Save Jackson Park

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Please Donate

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The TGR Design/Tiger Woods Golf Course 'expansion' cuts down 2,106 mature trees in southeast Jackson Park and destroys all of the South Shore Nature Sanctuary.

Widened fairways and larger greens means more trees cut down.

​From Chicago Parks Golf Alliance:
​"Recreational players will enjoy playing much ​wider fairways and larger greens than the current Jackson Park/South Shore configurations. However, for the elite player, the design puts a premium on placing your ball on the right spots on those fairways and greens. The design also provides for many different angles and shot options to attack a hole."

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Hard to beat view from what will be the par 3 12th green means South Shore Nature Sanctuary destroyed.

From Chicago Parks Golf Alliance:
"Speaking of views, at many points on the course, golfers will be able to take in the Chicago Skyline and the new Obama Presidential Center... the unique urban setting with Lake Michigan and Chicago Skyline views will make for a truly memorable golf experience.

​"Recreational players will enjoy playing much wider fairways and larger greens than the current Jackson Park/South Shore configurations."

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From Childhood Development and Access to Nature:

"Unprecedented numbers of children in the US suffer from asthma, cancer, low IQs, and learning disabilities each year. Current findings from the environmental psychology and environmental health fields are beginning to link children’s diminishing access to nature to children’s declining mental and physical health. 

​"Recent findings indicate that limited exposure to nature and green space may have serious physical and psychological health ramifications for children."

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