Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle shut down further chunks of the forest preserves starting Saturday, citing throngs of visitors who are not listening to social distancing guidelines.
With a month to go before the start of summer, parking lots in six nature preserves will be closed on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, Preckwinkle announced in a news conference Friday. They are Busse Woods in Elk Grove Village, Maple Lake in Willow Springs, Palos Forest Preserve in Willow Springs, Catherine Chevalier Woods in Chicago, LaBagh Woods in Chicago and Bunker Hill in Niles.
The decision was necessitated by “repeated violations” of the statewide ban on large gatherings during weekends at those Cook County Forest Preserve District sites, Preckwinkle said.
“Unfortunately, we’ve seen that on warm weekend days, these locations are too popular.” Preckwinkle said. “There’s too many visitors who are not following critical public health guidelines to fight COVID-19.”
Those violating the rules include people hauling in barbecue grills and sitting at picnic tables with groups who were “clearly” not part of their household, forest preserves General Superintendent Arnold Randall said.
Normally, Randall would be thrilled at the surge of interest in the forest preserves. He said there has been an unprecedented number of visits and online searches that beat the busiest days during the summer. But this year is unlike any other, with the enduring coronavirus outbreak leading to another extension of the state’s stay-at-home order.
“We again did not come to this decision lightly,” Randall said. “It is a responsible answer to deal with the most problematic times, which tend to be the weekends especially if it’s warm.”
Forest preserve officers will be stationed to enforce the closures. Visitors violating the parking lot ban or who clog up nearby streets to bypass the order could be subject to citations.
The Cook County Forest Preserves operates 70,000 acres of nature and wildlife year-round, including 300 miles of trails, but has already started turning away visitors in some parts amid the spread of coronavirus. Its public buildings, nature centers, campgrounds, restrooms and other locations were shuttered last month.
Preckwinkle had threatened more action if the crowds swelled to unmanageable levels.
Statewide, Gov. J.B. Pritzker has taken a different approach with state parks. Some will reopen next month following a ban on visitors to all state parks on March 21.
Regulars at the Chicago lakefront aren’t so lucky. Mayor Lori Lightfoot hasn’t yet eased regulations on the trails and parks there since closing them down to the public earlier this month. During her announcement, she chastised the crowds of at least a hundred walkers, bikers and joggers congregating at unsafe proximities.