Accomplished with a new 68-acre parcel in Southeast Suburban Cook

The Forest Preserves of Cook County has reached a momentous milestone, officially holding more than 70,000 acres of land for the first time in its 110-year history. The Forest Preserves of Cook County is the oldest and largest preserve system of its kind in the country.

“It is unique for a metropolitan area like ours to have such a diversity of important habitats for native plants and wildlife at this scale and readily available to millions of local residents. It’s such an important legacy,” said Forest Preserves of Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle. “I am honored to preside over the moment when we cross over to more than 70,000 acres. This is a celebration of the importance of public land available for everyone to enjoy.”

The landmark was reached today at the November meeting of the Forest Preserves’ Board of Commissioners by voting to add a 68-acre plot of land to the Preserves along Deer Creek in unincorporated Cook County. The addition raises the total holdings of the Forest Preserves of Cook County to 70,042 acres. More than 11 percent of Cook County is in the Forest Preserves, an amount equal to the land in Peoria and Springfield combined.

Purchased from the nonprofit Conservation Fund, the 68 acres is former farmland at Glenwood Dyer Road and Ridge Road. As a preserve, it will protect the floodplain and its ecosystem from development and holds potential for restoration of wetlands associated with the creek. The property is one of several land acquisitions by the Forest Preserves in south suburban Cook County in recent years, following the strategy of the Preserves’ award-winning Southeast Cook County Land Acquisition Plan.

To date in 2024, the Forest Preserves has acquired 249 acres, the second most in any year since 1984. Over the past three years, the total is 610 acres in locations across Cook County, more than any time in nearly a decade, thanks to funds available from the 2022 tax-levy referendum, state grants and, through Cook County, the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

“Holding more than 70,000 acres is an exciting accomplishment. These preserves help mitigate the impacts of climate change, provide opportunities for outdoor recreation, are a living classroom for kids and adults, and serve as home to beautiful—and in some cases, threatened or endangered—native species. It is increasingly difficult to find available property that advances our mission in such a densely populated and highly developed region. But we have made it a priority to continue to add to the natural land that will remain here in Cook County,” said Interim General Superintendent Eileen Figel.

The Forest Preserves purchased its first property in 1916: 272 acres in what is now Deer Grove-East, in Palatine. With additions of adjacent land, the Deer Grove preserves now hold nearly 2,000 acres of rolling upland forest, wooded ravines, wetlands and prairie.

Nearly half of the more than 70,000 acres owned by the Forest Preserves was added in its first 20 years of existence. This includes LaBagh Woods in 1922, known as one of Chicago’s best birding spots and the southernmost point of the 20-mile North Branch Trail System.

Over the ensuing decades, the pace of expansion slowed, but in every decade the Forest Preserves has added to its more than 70,000 acres. Examples across Cook County include Tampier Lake near Orland Park in 1952, a popular location for boating and fishing that was created when Long Run Creek was dammed. Bobolink Meadow, farmland near Tinley Park that the Forest Preserves purchased in 1964, underwent major ecological restoration to the level that the site is now officially registered as an Illinois Land and Water Reserve.

The first segments of Wolf Road Prairie Nature Preserve in central suburban Cook County was purchased in 1966, a property slated for development before the Great Depression (the southern portion is still crisscrossed with sidewalks) saved by the efforts of local residents and where prairie, savanna and wetland are now home to more than 360 native plant species. In 2006 the Forest Preserves acquired Bluff Spring Fen in Elgin, first cleaned of debris by local volunteers and today includes one of only about a dozen fens left in Illinois.

“Everyone deserves to live close to nature and to enjoy the benefits it provides to us and to the environment,” Interim General Superintendent Eileen Figel said. “Reaching 70,000 acres is an achievement we have been anticipating for years. Now, we are ready for the next milestone.”

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About the Forest Preserves of Cook County
Don’t you sometimes just want to escape? Explore the natural beauty of Cook County for an hour, a day or even a night. When you’re surrounded by 70,000 acres of wild and wonderful there’s no better place to feel free.