ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY 5 



area, the Waukegan Flats, the Skokie Marsh, the loop in the Fox River 

 in the southwestern part of the county, and areas bordering upon the 

 DesPlaines River for its entire course across the county from north 

 to south. These projects are indicated upon the accompanying map 

 though, of course, without any attempt at preciseness of location. 



A review of the projects proposed might properly begin with that 

 of the DesPlaines River as being on the largest scale. The DesPlaines 

 lies in a gently sloping valley beautifully diversified with woodland 

 and meadow. The river has its source in Wisconsin in a flat swamp 

 or slough where drainage is so imperfect that in wet weather part of 

 the marsh discharges northward to Root River and part south to the 

 DesPlaines. From this ill-defined divide the river flows south and 

 southw r est a distance of one hundred and twenty miles and joins the 

 Kankakee twelve miles below Joliet to form the Illinois River. Where 

 it crosses the Wisconsin boundary into Lake County the river is six 

 miles from the shore line of Lake Michigan. At the latitude of W T auke- 

 gan it is five miles distant from the lake, and it crosses over the 

 boundary into Cook County only eight miles from the shore. 



Plans already maturing look to the ultimate ownership by the county 

 of a strip varying from one fourth to a half mile wide the entire length 

 of its course within the county. This would insure the preservation of 

 the pastoral beauty of the river, with forests opening out into prairie- 

 like meadows and grassy flood plains dotted with hawthorne and wild 



Photo by John Baird 



IT IS FITTING THAT IN A DEMOCRACY SUCH AS OURS TOINT OWNERSHIP OF 



THE BEAUTIFUL PARTS OF OUR COUNTRY SHOULD BE VESTED IN EACH 



CITIZEN. WE NEED WTLD BEAUTY FOR OUR SOUL AS MUCH AS WE NEED 



THE FERTILE PRAIRIES FOR OUR MATERIAL WELFARE.— JENSEN. 



