28 THE AUDUBON BULLETIN 



The Forest Preserve of Cook County 



The Board of Commissioners of the Forest Preserve District of Cook 

 County has made great progress in the past year in perfecting its plans 

 and developing the organization of the new territory continually being 

 acquired. It is a wonderful work and Mr. Peter Reinberg, president of 

 the Board, and his fellow commissioners seem to have entered upon it 

 with a fine sense of the opportunity for public service that their official 

 position has afforded. At the start they selected five of their Board for a 

 plan committee and chose four others outside of public life as additional 

 members. The four are Charles H. Wacker, President of the Chicago Plan 

 Commission, Dwight H. Perkins, a noted architect with a great fondness 

 for the out-of-doors, and J. C. Vaughan and William A. Peterson, widely 

 known nurserymen. This plan committee has had great visions, and it 

 is pleasant to report that the visions are growing into reality from day 

 to day. Through their recommendation, the Board of Commissioners has 

 already acquired 10,000 acres of land, and 15,000 additional acres are 

 under consideration. It is hard to overestimate the future significance of 

 this work. Chicago is now famous the world over for her small parks. 

 Cook County will be famous for her belt of protected woodlands and 

 lakes and shady watercourses free of access to the population of the great 

 city nearby. 



The first of the Forest Preserve areas to be set aside was that near 

 Palatine and formerly known as Deer Grove Park. The formal dedication 

 of this area, which includes 1195 acres, took place June 16, 1917, under 

 the auspices of the Forest Preserve District and the County Superintend- 

 ent of Schools. The schools in the townships of Barrington, Palatine, 

 Wheeling and Elk Grove had a prominent part in the program, and 

 County Superintendent Edward j. Tobin availed himself of the occasion 

 to conduct the graduating exercises of the eighth grade pupils of. those 

 townships. Games, field meets, drills by Camp Fire Girls and speeches 

 by prominent men were a part of an all-day program which came to a 

 close with the dedicatory parade to the "Undiscovered Lake." 



Further reference to the area above named, known now as Forest 

 Preserve Number One, is pertinent here. In this preserve the work of 

 organization has been carried along far enough to show the possibilities 

 of a continuation of such enlightened procedure in other preserves yet to 

 be developed. Mr. Ranson Kennicott, whose title of Forester makes him 

 executive head of the field organization, has been able to mature several 

 very interesting projects here. Advantage was taken of two small creeks 

 to divert their course into a spring fed lake. Then with the protection of 

 a dam this lake was enlarged to cover an area of thirty acres. It is irregu- 

 lar in outline and nestles among the wooded hills in a most natural manner. 

 A small island adds to the charm of this lake. 



This lake and its surroundings furnish Mr. Kennicott and his associates 

 a much desired opportunity to attract wild fowl to the area. Immediate 

 success has attended their efforts. All this past summer members of the 

 snipe family have been numerous there, "yellow legs," "tip-ups," and 

 others. Three mallards arrived in August and by September their num- 



