21- 

 act creating it permitted active Construction work to 

 "be begim. The area is divided into a number of 

 scattered tracts of natural woodland, some bordering 

 the north and mith "branch of the Chicago river. Some 

 portions of the preserves are readily accessible by- 

 various of the many avenues of suburban transportation, 

 but in general the crowds reach them by automobile. 

 "There is a small proportion of excellent timber 

 in the Preserve but it will prohably never be a 

 source of Itober. Even such fire wood as is 

 secured in cleaning up the woods is consumed in the 

 internal activities of the organization. It protects 

 no important water sheds, as these streams have been 

 used for sewage and not for water-supply - and the 

 ahatement of sewage contamination by linking up the 

 villages to the Sanitary District system has been 

 one of the administrative problems. In a word these 

 forests are useful only for recreation - and their 

 usefulness in that direction is beyond money 



computation". 



In England various of the royal parks and 

 preserves have long "been open to the public but the 

 modern town planning movement has brought forward the 

 idea of municipally owned forests. However, about 

 the only town in England to acquire a "Hature Reserve" 

 within reent years is Birmingham, near which city 450 

 acres of valley and woodland in the Lickey Hill have 



