The Chicago Park District has voted to name a section of the Montrose Beach Dunes Natural Area after Monty and Rose, a beloved pair of piping plovers whose unlikely love story captured the hearts of Chicagoans.
The stretch of the lakefront, now dubbed the Monty and Rose Wildlife Habitat, is part of a 3.1-acre expansion of the protected land in Lincoln Park. The Park District’s board of commissioners voted on the name Wednesday, which coincided with Valentine’s Day.
Monty and Rose achieved local celebrity status in 2019 when they became the first of their endangered species to raise a family in Chicago in more than 60 years. The lovebirds returned to the area each summer to nest, garnering scores of enthusiastic followers until Monty’s death in 2022.
“Monty and Rose may one day be counted amongst the great love stories, yet today we celebrate the love affair that Chicago and Chicagoans have for nature and conservation,” Chicago Piping Plovers said in a Facebook post last week.
Monty and Rose’s son, Imani, returned to Montrose in 2022 and 2023, according to the Chicago Bird Alliance. Last year, only about 250 piping plovers were summering in the Great Lakes region.
The Park District announced the expansion of the Montrose Beach Dunes Natural Area in 2021 to support wildlife conservation efforts. Because there are so few protected sand beaches in Illinois, the habitat is critical to shorebirds, according to the Park District.
Part of the expansion includes the spot where Monty and and Rose met.
“From one bird love story to another, diverse bird species are reclaiming once industrialized areas of our beloved city, including the steel mills and landfills in Chicago’s Southeast Side and the once contaminated riverways, and calling our urban parks home,” Park District Superintendent and CEO Rosa Escareño said in a news release.