Illinois took a bold step toward redefining conservation. With broad bipartisan support, the Illinois House and Senate recently passed House Bill 2726, marking a turning point: Rewilding — restoring ecosystems through natural processes and minimal human interaction — is no longer fringe. It’s a practical, forward-looking approach to land use rooted in science and shaped by local needs.
Once signed into law, HB 2726 will make Illinois the first state to formally define rewilding as part of its conservation strategy. The bill establishes a landowner-friendly program under the state’s Department of Natural Resources, and it complements federal initiatives like the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program but remains clearly state-led.
The legislation supports restoration, enhances biodiversity and delivers economic value to rural communities. Whether it’s native prairie, wetland buffers or wildlife corridors, the bill focuses on what works ecosystem by ecosystem.
What sets this bill apart is its blend of vision and realism. It was shaped with input from conservationists, farmers and environmental economists, and it’s designed to adapt to fiscal realities without relying on shaky federal funding. There are no mandates — just tools for smarter land use.
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And the benefits go beyond wildlife. Rewilding improves flood resilience, water retention, soil health and land productivity. It supports both ecological recovery and economic resilience.
I believe the future of conservation in the U.S. lies in smart, localized solutions in coexistence with thoughtful federal alignment. We protect nature state by state, bolting onto our world-renowned national parks, crafting durable policies that can’t be easily reversed. That’s how we build a national framework — one that puts the U.S. at the global forefront of habitat restoration. America has always been a wild country, and the American spirit — rooted in liberty — needs wild spaces to thrive. We protect these places not only for the environment, but for our collective soul.
This work is already happening. In northern Illinois, Ann Wasser at Severson Dells is leading a community-powered rewilding project on a retired golf course — turning it into a thriving ecosystem with measurable impact. Groups like the Illinois Environmental Council have been instrumental in building momentum and shaping this policy with integrity and insight.
Rewilding isn’t radical. It reflects a conservation ethic that goes back to Aldo Leopold and the founding of the National Park Service. What’s different now is the urgency. The cost of inaction is growing. Illinois lawmakers did the right thing.
Chadwick Hagan, Hagan Family Foundation, Atlanta
Healing by helping birth process
When my mother passed, I stepped into a silence only a daughter can feel. But life did not wait.
Babies kept coming. Mothers kept laboring. And the work we do through Chicago Volunteer Doulas did not stop.
So I kept showing up with my grief tucked into the corners of my breath, my mother’s lessons held close. I held the hands of new mothers while mourning the one who once held me. I led through my sorrow, letting it soften me instead of harden me.
And then, something sacred happened. My daughters, now grown, began walking the doula path themselves. I watched them care for others with fierce tenderness, continuing the work in ways that carried my mother’s spirit forward. Their calling became part of my healing.
Each expansion of our work has been both a tribute to my mother’s legacy and a refusal to accept the silence forced upon Black women in medical spaces. Because, still today, Black mothers in the U.S. are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white mothers. But we are not statistics. We are stories. We are lineages. We are breath passed down.
Mother’s Day may have passed, but our reverence for Black mothers cannot be contained in a single day. You deserve to be held, honored and protected all year long.
Grieving while leading has taught me that strength is not in the absence of pain, but in what we choose to build with it. I no longer hide my cracks. And in those cracks, something powerful has grown — truth, connection and collective healing.
I continue to believe that birth work is revolutionary, that grief can be generative, and that love, like breath, never truly dies.
Lakeesha Harris, executive director, Chicago Volunteer Doulas
Bad address
Throughout its history, our military has always had a policy of being nonpartisan. Our president visited West Point over the weekend to deliver the commencement address to the graduating officer corps, which has been done countless times by the commander-in-chief. Generally a commencement speech lauds the graduates for their accomplishments and looks to their future challenges and possibilities. However, nobody’s accomplishments can ever exceed those of Mr. Trump. Inappropriately wearing his red MAGA hat, Donald Trump gave a rambling speech which devolved into his standard election rally banter, paying little attention to the graduates. How proud of their commander the graduates must have been after hearing another standard Trump diatribe. After four or five years of difficult work, this is who will be leading them?
Barry Goldberg, Evanston
Careless mail delivery invites crime
Some U.S. Postal Service letter carriers leave mail half out of the mail slots in doors. The post office should forbid this practice, because it makes it easier for mail to be stolen. “Check washing” — the process of erasing details from checks to allow them to be rewritten — is rampant, and is a leading reason for stolen mail. Furthermore, mail sticking out tells burglars that the occupants are probably not at home.
Larry E. Nazimek, Logan Square