It started with 144 acres in Homer Township in what is known today as Messenger Woods. In the 95 years since, the Forest Preserve District of Will County has grown to 23,145 acres across 70 preserves, with 129 miles of trails, six off-leash dog parks and six visitor centers.
But the preserves have grown in more than just size, according to Ralph Schultz, the Forest Preserve District’s executive director, who has worked for the district for nearly 29 years.
“While we have always had a focus on preserving, managing and restoring Will County’s natural areas, our efforts to connect people with nature have evolved over the years and grown exponentially in the more recent past,” Schultz said.
The Forest Preserve District of Will County was created in November 1926 by referendum and legally established in 1927, with Messenger Woods being the first land acquisition in 1930 at $125 an acre. According to an article produced by the district, development was booming in the area and there was talk of a “super-highway system” linking Will County with Cook County and beyond. The Joliet Rotary spearheaded a movement to save the county’s timber tracts and preserve open spaces. The idea was to leave the land for “reforestation,” in its natural state, and the referendum passed by nearly a 2-1 margin.
Schultz said in the 1930s and ’40s, preservation efforts focused on the existing woodlots, forested areas and savannas.
More Top Picks Best Wraparound Blue Light Glasses
“They were somewhat isolated from the main population centers and much smaller than the preserves that we assemble today,” Schultz said. “Nonetheless, they were open to the public for recreation, study and enjoyment.”
Over the next four decades, the district only added 1,300 acres. But in the 1970s, a $6 million bond sale allowed it to acquire 2,000 acres along Hickory and Spring creeks to reduce flooding. Preservation focused on sites with relatively intact soil structure, hydrology that could be restored and bringing nature closer to the people in nearby communities, Schultz said.
“As planners became more familiar with the developing field of conservation biology in the late 1970s and early 1980s, they recognized the need to preserve larger sites and ones that had been altered by humans but could be restored to the natural cover,” he said. “The ideas of buffering the most unique and natural areas and creating new larger preserves with little or no remaining natural vegetation took off.”
Much of the work during those decades was driven by the understanding that, prior to settlement, Will County was nearly 90% prairie, Schultz said. The district was focused on protecting and restoring those grasslands. It did so, in part, by establishing greenways along the preserves’ waterways.
Referendums in 1999 and 2005 gave the district another $165 million to keep acquiring land. In addition to natural preservation, the district’s mission started to include historical spaces, such as the Civilian Conservation camp remnants in McKinley Woods and the Joliet Iron Works ruins.
Trails also became a big focus in the 1990s, according to Schultz. The public wanted trail corridors to connect communities and nature. So the district developed a system of regional trails — paved, crushed limestone and natural surface — that continue to be a focus today, he said. Several of those, including the Old Plank Road Trail, grew from the rails-to-trails movement that swept the country.
“The changing nature of development in the county, our understanding of the positive and negative effects of humans on the environment, the importance of maintaining biodiversity, and the desire to bring nature closer to our residents have shaped the growth of the forest preserves,” Schultz said. “I believe that the forest preserve has remained true to its purpose, which is to preserve and protect and restore and restock a balanced system of preserves. We have been good stewards of the lands previously set aside, and we’ve maintained a focus on connecting people to nature.”
In November 2019, the Forest Preserve District’s Board of Commissioners approved a $25 million bond issue. Of that, $13 million is being used for preserve, facility and trail improvements, while $12 million is for land preservation over the course of a five-year capital plan, according to Cindy Cain, the district’s public information officer.
But the milestones for the preserves have been more than just land acquisitions. The district has won awards for its restoration efforts and received designations from the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission for 11 of its sites, recognizing them as high quality natural areas that protect rare and endangered plants and animal species, as well as uncommon habitat types, Cain said.
“We’re always striving to improve the quality of life for Will County’s residents and the environment for the many creatures and species that call this area home,” she said.
That includes organized activities to keep visitors engaged with the preserves. Those, too, have proven adaptable.
“Our programming has evolved over the last 30 years to reach a much broader audience base,” said Lynn Kurczewski, the district’s director of visitor services. “Historically, we offered nature hikes for families. But over the years we’ve expanded programming to include topics that were on trend and would attract new visitors to our facilities and preserves.”
The district regularly surveys visitors about programming, tweaking it based on the results. In recent years, there have been shifts to virtual programming, which Kurczewski said “dramatically” expanded the reach of the forest preserve district, with people even joining from other states and countries.
As much as the mission of the preserves is about maintaining and restoring the natural landscape for generations to come, if the last 95 years have proven anything it is that the figurative landscape of the Forest Preserve District of Will County is also adaptable to the times. Schultz said that makes what shape it will take over the next 95 years almost impossible to predict.
“It is hard to imagine what our environment will look like in 95 years, what technology and invention will produce, and how our relationship with nature will evolve,” he said. “My hope is that through a continued focus on the basic tenets set forth in our enabling legislation and continued stewardship of our lands, our residents will have a greater respect for nature and a desire to continue to enhance and protect their environment and the remnants of nature found in their forest preserves.”
For now, the district is celebrating the milestone with a Spring Ninety-fiver Challenge. Through June 30, participants can walk, run or bike 95 accumulative miles in the county’s forest preserves. They simply need to use an app such as Runkeeper to record the miles and upload a screenshot of the total miles once the challenge is completed.
“What better way to commemorate this milestone than encouraging people to get out in the preserves?” said Jen Guest, the district’s recreation coordinator. “This challenge is about getting active outdoors in nature in a big way while traveling 95 miles through the Will County preserves. We hope people will be up for the adventure.”
Guest said people are welcome to do the same mile 95 times to see how nature changes daily, check out 95 miles of previously unexplored preserves or anything in between. Other creative methods of legal trail transport — in-line skates, roller skates, pogo sticks, unicycles — are welcome.
“Spending time outdoors is great for your mental health and wellness,” Guest said. “This program is designed to go at your own pace and enjoy yourself while taking on the challenge to be active outdoors.”
Those who complete the challenge will receive a small wallet with a zippered pouch featuring the new district logo. An online form and downloadable paper forms are also available at ReconnectWithNature.org.
More Top Picks Best Kids Cooking Sets
Bill Jones is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.