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Spring Festival
May 4, 10 am - 3 pm
Trailside Museum
River Forest
Celebrate spring with activities such as hikes, dip netting and crafts!
Birding Paddle
May 4, 9 am - 1 pm
Skokie Lagoons
Winnetka
Join us for a free paddling event during the height of bird migration. Call 708-771-1189 to reserve a spot.
International Migratory Bird Day
May 11
Crabtree Nature Center
Barrington Hills
12 pm - 4 pm
Sagawau Environmental Learning Center
Lemont
7 am - 3 pm
Celebrate birds in all their glory with two big bird events May 11. Plus, check individual nature center listings for other IMBD hikes and activities.
A Nature Block Party: An Urban Biodiversity Celebration
May 18, 9 am - 2 pm
Eggers Woods
Chicago
Discover the flora and fauna of urban preserves during this celebration of the Millennium Reserve. Des Plaines River Canoe and Kayak Marathon
May 19, 11 am - 3 pm
Ralph Frese founded this race along the Des Plaines River in 1958. Register at canoemarathon.com.
Aquatic Centers Open
May 25
Come take a splash this summer in one of our pools! Find a location.
Photo Meet-Up
May 25, 10 am
Wolf Road Prairie
Westchester
A series for photographers of all skill levels! Our naturalist will lead a brief tour, sharing scenic vistas and natural life. Capture images and share tips. Meet at Prairie House (north of prairie), 11225 Constitution Drive, west of Wolf Road. Click here to learn more.
For details and a full event listing including all regular events at our six nature centers, visit our Events page. | |
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Try This! Visit the Dan Ryan Aqueducts
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One of the few forest preserves within city limits on the south side of Chicago, Dan Ryan Woods sits atop Blue Island, an ancient geological feature and one of the highest points in the city. Originally purchased in 1937, this preserve has grown into a fine place for a peaceful stroll, bike ride, picnic or birding adventure.
In the south section of Dan Ryan, a series of stone aqueducts wind peacefully downhill through the site's oak woodlands. Primarily built as drainage structures and erosion control features, they were constructed from limestone flagstone, adding a unique aesthetic feature to the site. Even today, when rain falls the channels fill with water from the surrounding area. The water travels through the aqueducts to the lower eastern area of the preserve where it pools and percolates back into the ground.
To find the aqueducts, walk north into the woods from the parking lot at 89th and Western. A second aqueduct system is located north of 87th street, running alongside the stairs from the top of the hill to the recently renovated historic pavilion.
Along the east edge of Dan Ryan Woods, the Major Taylor Trail provides a scenic route for bikers. The trail continues six miles south, crossing the Calumet River and connecting to Whistler Woods. The District actively manages Dan Ryan's wetlands and oak woodlands. Volunteers can help with this effort through Friends of the Forest Preserves. Look up workdays here.
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Spring took its time coming to Cook County this year. Here's a look at this year's April compared to last year's, which followed a March with temperatures in the 80s.  This year: April 13 at Dan Ryan Woods  Last year: April 7 at Little Red Schoolhouse  This year: April 13 at Eggers Woods  Last year: April 15 at Trailside Museum | |
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Did You Know? Origins of Names
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The origins of the forest preserves are at your fingertips.
In April's Did You Know? segment, we shared how Beaubien Woods got its name. But did you know that you can learn the origins of hundreds of other forest preserve names in Origins of Names and Histories of Places, a fascinating publication from 1964-65 by FPDCC Conservation Editor Roberts Mann? You can download the entire scanned document online from the Forest Preserve District archives, housed at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Thanks to Mary Wilson for asking us about this on our Facebook page.
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PICNIC SEASON
by Forest Preserve District President Toni Preckwinkle
 I'm a native of Minnesota. It's a state known for its wild landscapes and outdoorsy folks, so I learned from an early age to appreciate nature and the joys of a spontaneous summer picnic.
What many don't realize is that right here in thoroughly urbanized northeastern Illinois, people can picnic a stone's throw away from some of the Midwest's most beautiful and biologically rich landscapes.
Here in Cook County, the Forest Preserve District maintains 274 picnic groves for use throughout the year. With 8,468 picnic permits issued in 2012 for an estimated total attendance of 983,465 people coming to reserved groves, picnicking is without a doubt one of the largest organized activities in the Cook County forest preserves.
The Forest Preserve District helps families, friends and coworkers make memories in a relaxed outdoor setting close to nature. A picnic can strengthen family ties or help office colleagues reach beyond their departments. It's low-cost (as little as $47 for a permit for 25 to 99 people) and can accommodate small groups or large. Groups of fewer than 24 people can picnic in designated Family Picnic Areas or spread a blanket on a mowed field any time of day without a reservation. We also have a few groves that can accommodate groups as large as 6,000 for occasions such as large cultural or corporate events.
Historically, the Forest Preserve District General Headquarters in River Forest saw hundreds of people crowd through its doors each year on Permit Opening Day, January 2, to claim their favorite grove. Yet since the District introduced its online permitting system about seven years ago, more and more people are purchasing permits from home, and lines have gotten shorter.
Picnickers can still make reservations by mail as well.
This year, in an effort to better accommodate picnic patrons, the Permit Department has extended its hours between April and the end of September, staying open from 8:30 am to 6:30 pm, Monday through Friday, and 9 am to 1 pm on Saturdays.
With so many thousands of people coming to our picnic groves, we realize that there's a great opportunity to connect that celebratory experience to the wilder world of prairie and woodland that lies just beyond the mowed grass. This summer, we'll be piloting the Forest Preserve Fun Van. When picnic groups purchase a permit, they'll learn about opportunities for Forest Preserve District program staff to visit their gathering. Forest Fun Van staff will share ways to better understand and experience the natural areas and recreational amenities surrounding our picnic groves, with artifacts, information and equipment for exploring nature and outdoor fun.
Our hope is that a picnicker who began the summer just looking for a great burger and potato salad might develop a hunger to learn about great blue herons, tallgrass prairies, hiking trails and fishing spots as well.
I encourage you to learn more about picnicking in the forest preserves on our website. We'll see you out there this summer!
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| Seven ways to use the forest preserves to stay healthy
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Over the past few  decades, researchers have been learning much more about the effects of nature on our health and wellbeing. Here are seven suggestions for how to use the Forest Preserve District's 68,000 acres, 300 miles of trail and billions of doctors, psychologists and spiritual advisors* to stay healthy.
*Figure includes fresh breezes, rays of sunshine, bluebirds, oak trees, sunflowers and butterflies.
1. Get a move-on! Regular aerobic exercise is a cornerstone of overall fitness, weight control and cardiovascular health, so get that heart pumping! Hike, bike, run and in-line skate on our 100-plus miles of paved trails and 200-plus miles of unpaved trails across Cook County. Paddle a canoe, kayak or rowboat on many of our lakes and sloughs, or rivers such as the Des Plaines and Chicago. Or take a swim at Whealan Pool Aquatic Center at Caldwell Woods.
2. Hit the stairmaster. Climb the 126 stair steps at Swallow Cliff in Palos Township to get your heart rate up and quads burning. As one online reviewer commented, "If you want your butt kicked, in a sore and good way, come here." Or head out from the Bullfrog Lake trailhead in the Palos Preserves for a run or walk on natural-surface trails across varied, hilly terrain.
Read the full article...
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PRESERVE PROFILES NOW ONLINE
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Find them on our Maps page
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Volunteer Spotlight
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Perkins Woods Stewards
Site steward Libby Hill and apprentice steward Jancy Jerome know they're helping to look after a unique parcel of land. At 7.5 acres (tiny in comparison to other Forest Preserve District holdings, many of which are hundreds of acres), Perkins Woods is an outlier, one of the District's smallest parcels, and the most isolated from other District holdings. It's also the only preserve named after one of the District's founders, Dwight Perkins, who once lived nearby. And yet Perkins Woods is a real surviving remnant of Evanston's Big Woods, a swamp morainic woodland that once stretched west all the way to Harms Woods in Glenview. "My husband and I moved here as a young couple with a two-month-old because the woods were here," says Hill. "My husband taught at Northwestern, so we drove around Evanston, and said 'What's this woods here?' It was something natural. I like the natural world, and it had these beautiful big old trees. I wanted my children to grow up in a place that's at least semi-wild. This was Evanston, of course, but here was this wild place right next to the school they'd be going to. It was irresistible." "In 1992 when I first saw garlic mustard there and knew what it was, it was all along Colfax Street," says Hill. She called then Superintendent of Conservation, Chet Ryndak, to ask what she should do about this invasive plant, which crowds out native species. "He suggested I become the steward," she says. Thus on May 3, 1992, was born the Garlic Mustard Pull and Neighborhood Block Party. This Saturday, May 4, Hill and Jerome, along with the new Perkins Woods Steering Committee, will host the 21st Annual Pull. Read the full article and learn how to join in...
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DISTRICT LAUNCHES
CHAMPION TREE REGISTER
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Truly BIG trees hold a special place in our imagination. They are ancient giants, stretching into the sky and over our heads. It takes multiple people to reach around their trunks. They play special roles in the ecosystems they inhabit. Our biggest trees of each species are usually also our oldest, some reaching back to before the founding of the United States, before the French fur trappers, back to a time when the land was home to large Indian nations, cougars, bison, elk and wolves, when prairie, woodland, wetland and savanna stretched out in every direction. These elders are worth getting to know.
On Arbor Day, 2013, the Forest Preserve District of Cook County launched its Champion Tree Register. The initiative follows the models of many other Big Tree Registers, including the one begun in 1962 by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. By starting its own register, the District hopes to provide more opportunities for people to connect with the giants that inhabit their very own forest preserves.
Learn how it works...
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