Contest: Photograph nature in the city

Have you noticed all the natural beauty in Chicago? No, not architecture. Not Buckingham Fountain. Not the Bean. Natural beauty: lake, sky, plants, animals. Have you noticed with a camera?

The Chicago Park District is now accepting entries for its first annual "Nature in Chicago" photography contest, to lead to a traveling photo exhibit. The deadline for entries is Nov. 15. Not that the photos have to be taken within that time frame, but that's the period during which they will accept submissions through Flickr. Find the full details here.

The park district is not requiring photos of pristine and undisturbed nature, which would be a stretch, since they are requiring that all the photos must have been taken within the city limits. Virtually all of the city has been a construction site at one time or another if it's not downright landfill. And they are not requiring that the photos have been taken within the parks.

Which is interesting. Sort of goes along with the whole "Chicago Wilderness" concept of the city (and region) as one great, continuous habitat, which we humans inhabit along with a lot of other things that make their homes wherever they can find a spot in the greatly altered landscape. Monarch butterflies don't care if the milkweed on which they lay eggs is in a park or a back yard or a railroad right-of-way. Rabbits are not concerned with whether their breakfast is a wild meadow, somebody's prized salad garden or the annual flower beds in Grant Park. And remember the coyote who dropped by the downtown Quiznos a couple of summers ago? As far as the coyotes are concerned, it's all their territory.

So maybe you have some cool nature-in-the-city shots on your hard drive or your photo sharing site. Or maybe this will inspire you to get out and poke a lens around. There's all that lakefront. There are all those parks. There are a surprising number of patches of recreated prairie around those parks. There's the Chicago River. There's the North Park Village Nature Center. There's Lake Calumet. Who knows what you might find in your viewfinder?

Got a garden question? I recommend you call or e-mail the Plant Clinic of The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, the Master Gardeners of the University of Illinois Extension or the Plant Information Service of the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe .

All contents of this post are copyright Beth Botts. Feel free to link or share a brief excerpt with a link, but please do not reproduce photos or any other part of this blog without my express permission.