The Chiwaukee Prairie-Illinois Beach Lake Plain is a stretch of connected natural areas on the western shore of Lake Michigan which spans across the Wisconsin-Illinois Border. The Lake Plain includes Kenosha Dunes, Chiwaukee Prairie State Natural Area, Spring Bluff Forest Preserve, Illinois Beach State Park, Hosah Park, and Waukegan Dunes and serves as the highest quality dune and swale ecosystem in the Chicago Region. The Lake Plain Coalition is a concerted effort between state and local agencies, universities, non-profits and other organizations and individuals seeking to manage and protect the Lake Plain as one ecological unit. The Coalition is now a widely recognized alliance which cooperatively secures grant funding and fosters coordinated management and conservation efforts across the state line.

Belynda Alberte is the Coordinator of the Chiwaukee-Prairie Illinois Beach Lake Plain Coalition. She works with the Coalition with their organizational needs, seeking funding sources for habitat management and conservation strategies, and overall project management in the Lake Plain. She also assists in management and stewardship of the Lake Plain Natural Areas with agency staff, non-profits, and volunteers. A botanist by trade, Ms. Alberte”s Master's thesis explored the vegetation of the Lake Plain (University of Wisconsin-Parkside, Masters of Biology with a Concentration in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation).