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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>FYI - From today’s Sun-Times – Randi Doeker,
Chicago<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<h2 style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:2.0pt;
margin-left:0in'><b><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>UIC prof: Nature centers good bang per buck <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h2>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:2.0pt;
margin-left:0in'><i><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;font-style:italic'>July 25, 2006</span></font></i><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:2.0pt;
margin-left:0in'><b><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold'>BY <a href="mailto:gwisby@suntimes.com">GARY
WISBY</a> Environment Reporter </span></font></b><!-- Empty line is needed --><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:2.0pt;
margin-left:0in'><!--publication CST --><!--pub_section NWS page 16 last modified 7/24/06 10:53 PM--><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><!--deck Study shows areas worthy of investment -->What's
a visit to a nature center worth to you? <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:2.0pt;
margin-left:0in'><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Way more than your average cost of $87 in travel and time
for a six-visit season, says economist Dan McGrath. The way he figures it --
based on a sophisticated calculation that takes income and other demographics
into account -- you'd be willing to pay $1,200 per season. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:2.0pt;
margin-left:0in'><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>That's how McGrath, a professor at the University of
Illinois at Chicago, comes up with more than $8 million as the combined
"social gain" per season at the two nature centers that are most
accessible to Chicagoans. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:2.0pt;
margin-left:0in'><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>His study concludes that the city will get good value from
the $7.5 million -- not counting a likely $500,000 annual outlay for operation
and maintenance -- it's spending on the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Ford</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Calumet</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Environmental</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Center</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>
in the Hegewisch Marsh. The larger meaning, says McGrath: "Nature experience
in urban areas merits investment by government." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:2.0pt;
margin-left:0in'><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>His study used more than 350 interviews, collected by
graduate student Laura Goddeeris, of visitors to <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">North
Park</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Village</st1:PlaceType> <st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Nature</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Center</st1:PlaceType>
on the Northwest Side and <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Sand</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">Ridge</st1:PlaceType> <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Nature</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Center</st1:PlaceType> in South Holland, on <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Chicago</st1:place></st1:City>'s south border. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:2.0pt;
margin-left:0in'><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>McGrath, who visited the Northwest Side center Monday,
watching a grazing doe and wandering among wildflowers, used a standardized
methodology that assessed income, gender, race and method of travel to compute
visitors' social benefit. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:2.0pt;
margin-left:0in'><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>"We examined actual behavior rather than asking
people's opinions," he said. "The analogy I use is estimating the
power of a motorboat by measuring the wake it leaves behind." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:2.0pt;
margin-left:0in'><!--startsubhead--><b><font size=3 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold'>Next: Study of real
estate values </span></font></b><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:2.0pt;
margin-left:0in'><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>He thinks his work shows that the city's investment in the
Ford Calumet center, scheduled to open in 2007, will be worthwhile. One caveat
-- it hasn't been proved that Chicagoans have an unmet need for nature
experiences, although other studies point that way, McGrath said. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:2.0pt;
margin-left:0in'><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>His $50,000 study was funded by the Illinois-Indiana Sea
Grant College Program. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:2.0pt;
margin-left:0in'><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Now McGrath, a self-described environmentalist who lives in
Westchester by the Westchester Prairie, wants to look at the residential area
around <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">North Park</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Village</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> to see what the nature
center has done to real estate values since its creation in 1992. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:2.0pt;
margin-left:0in'><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Jennifer Cudahy is evidence those values have risen.
"It's a huge selling point to this area," said <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Cudahy</st1:place></st1:City>, 36, who with her husband is buying a
home nearby on <st1:Street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Central Park Avenue</st1:address></st1:Street>.
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:2.0pt;
margin-left:0in'><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Pushing 16-month-old Amelia around the grounds in a stroller
while her other daughter, 3-year-old Kate, was in gymnastics class, "We
saw a deer and babies," Cudahy said. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:2.0pt;
margin-left:0in'><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>"This is an oasis from city life, a getaway just steps
away," she said. "That's what I love about it."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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