By : Subuk Hasnain
Tue, 10/01/2013 - 3:09pm
The Cook County Forest Preserve District Board of Commissioners on Tuesday passed an intergovernmental agreement with the Prairie Research Institute of the University of Illinois for the development of a Natural and Cultural Resources Management Plan.
According to Arnold Randall, superintendent of the Cook County Forest Preserve District, the district will use “scientists and professionals who are in the environmental [and] ecological world to help us assess our ecological value and … help us to create an overarching plan for restoration.”
Randall explained that even though the district already has several individual site plans for restoration, it was also necessary to have an overarching plan for their natural land.
During the creation of the new Natural and Cultural Resources Management Plan, the district will use quick field surveys conducted by the Prairie Research Institute to fill gaps in existing forest preserve data.
John McCabe, deputy director of Resource Management at the Cook County Forest Preserve District, stated that the end result of the collaboration will be the forest preserve’s plan “for the next hundred years.”
Commissioner Larry Suffredin (13th) called the plan a “remarkable achievement” and said that it will give the Forest Preserve District better direction for future restoration efforts.
Commissioners approved a budget of $1.3 million for the initial phase of the plan’s development, which should be completed by December 2014.
Other board actions on Tuesday:
· The Forest Preserve District Board passed ordinances to acquire land near the Oak Forest Heritage and Spring Lake Nature preserves
· The Board of Commissioners voted in favor of an intergovernmental agreement between the district and the Friends of the Forest Preserve to run the Forest Preserve Leadership Corps program, which aims to teach conservation and leadership skills to young adults who graduated from the Chicago Conservation Leadership Corps Program.
· The Board of Commissioners passed an ordinance that gives the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers limited access to district property for a five-year plant control restoration project in the Burnham Prairie Annex, which is located immediately west of the Burnham Prairie Nature Preserve in southern Cook County. The project will include invasive species removal, controlled burns, and planting and seeding of native species. USACE received a $580,000 grant for the project.
· The Board of Commissioners honored John E. Raudenbush, who recently retired after 33 years as a resource manager at the Cook County Forest Preserve District. Raudenbush started his career at the forest preserve district as a student forester in 1978 and was assigned to the Forestry Department in 1980. Commissioners thanked Raudenbush for his decades of service and for bringing the district into the modern age through his restoration work.
· Commissioners recognized the Chicago Zoological Society for its receipt of the 2013 Angela Peterson Excellence in Diversity Award from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums at the AZA’s national conference in Kansas City, Mo. last week.
This article was originally published on the Daily Whale website in 2013.