Also Present: Arnold Randall, General Superintendent, CC Forest Preserve District
Testimony began at 6:00 PM at the Skokie Court House, Skokie, IL
1) Kay Havens (Chicago Botanic Garden Staff) spoke about the
internship program at the Gardens which began in 2002. It gives hands on experience in botany,
wildlife management, land-usage and conservation. There have been 75-100 graduates of the
program who have gone on to jobs in land conservation. Federal stimulus dollars have been awarded to
this nationally recognized program.
2) Joseph Walsh teaches
ecology and genetics at Northwestern University. He
utilizes the forest preserve for his undergraduate classes and urges an
increase in funding. There have been many proposals for additional programs in
the forest preserve such as building a convention center to get people to
interact with nature and building playgrounds.
These suggestions do not really encourage people to interact with
nature. Children are “hardwired” to
respond to animals and to nature. We
need to be sure that we are not constructing artificial barriers to such interaction.
Arnold Randall commented that in the past the budget number
has been inflated. Commissioners are
trying to be more transparent now and to be clear on what is actually being
spent, rather than just putting out a number on paper. He assured Mr. Walsh
that proposals that don’t make sense will be filtered out in the planning
process. Comm. Suffredin encouraged Mr.
Walsh to continue using the Forest Preserve for his classes at Northwestern.
3) George Blakemore (a concerned citizen) wants citizens,
particularly those in the black community, to get a fair share of jobs and
contracts. The commissioners need to
educate and enlighten citizens about these meetings.
4) Rett Donnelly (volunteer in FPDCC) was happy to hear that
the budget is not actually shrinking. He
and other volunteers have been working to combat invasive species such as
buckthorn, Asian parsley. He urges
caring for what we have now rather than initiating new programs like camping,
zip lines, etc. The FPD would need to add police for these new programs, which
is an added expense.
Mr. Randall said that historically the FPD has not reached
out to the general population. They need
to find ways to get people into the Forest Preserves. People of the next generation need to be involved
and learning to care for this resource.
--Submitted by Georgia Gebhardt
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