In 2002, the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County was granted self-autonomy in an attempt to free the board of conflicting interests that come with serving the wider county government.
The decision was approved by the DuPage County Board in 1994 and the State of Illinois in 1996, making it, at the time, the only Forest Preserve District in the state to have its own board of commissioners and elections.
Recently, Mike Manzo, an Oak Brook Village Board Trustee, drafted a referendum to be presented to the County Board, rolling back its 1994 decision, to bring the forest preserve district back under county control.
“The Forest Preserve does not need to be a separate level of government,” Manzo said in an interview with the Pioneer Press. “What the referendum is asking is to go back to the way it was, so we can deal with the [county] commissioners who are much more responsive than commissioners in the Forest Preserve right now.”
The Village of Oak Brook has been a hotbed of conflict with the Forest Preserve District over the last couple of years; in 2020 the district approved the removal of the Graue Mill Dam near the Graue Mill and Museum, a National Historic Landmark of the Forest Preserve restored to operating conditions in 1934.
According to Forest Preserve officials, the decision to remove the dam was made to improve water quality and biodiversity along the Salt Creek stream; the decision was met with ire from the Graue Mill Museum staff and board members, and of the Fullersburg Historic Foundation, who believe removing the dam would stop the water flow used to help turn the large outdoor mill wheel.
The dam removal is part of the Forest Preserve’s greater Salt Creek Restoration plan which began in 2020, led by DuPage River Salt Creek Workgroup, a non-profit formed in 2007 to monitor water quality and wildlife around the stream.
Part of the Salt Creek Restoration involves the removal of invasive plant life including non-native trees which the forest preserve’s plans say will be replaced with native oak and hickory trees.
“I personally believe too many large trees were taken out,” Linda Painter, a commissioner on the forest preserve board, said in an interview. According to Painter, what and how many trees to remove was made by the Forest Preserve’s Department of Natural Resources.
More recently, the Forest Preserve staff decided to stop taking in baby raccoons for rehabilitation.
“We’ve had a lot of residents in front of us upset with the Forest Preserve with their plans to start euthanizing baby raccoons that are brought into the Willowbrook [Wildlife] Center, they’ve been treating these animals for the last how many years, and now they’re gonna not be doing that anymore,” DuPage County Commissioner Brian Krajewski said.
The center could rehab up to 50 raccoons at a time, but the concerns over the spread of diseases, extensive time to fully mature, and a pension for eating Blanding’s turtle eggs led staff to make their judgment, Painter said.
Throughout all of this, some community members have felt left out of the decision-making process.
“I think there’s just a lot of strain throughout DuPage County of issues that the Forest Preserve doesn’t seem to be listening to their constituents,” Krajewski said.
In February 2023, a bridge near Waterfall Glenn was washed away, eight months later the Forest Preserve fixed the bridge without permits causing issues with nearby Argonne National Laboratory.
“They knew darn well they had to get a permit and then they just ignored the rules and just went and put a bridge in,” Krajewski said.
Whether the forest preserve district could or should be rolled back into the wider county government is up to the legislators in Springfield or DuPage County voters should the referendum ever come to a vote.
As of publication, the referendum has not been introduced to the County Board.
When reached for comment, Forest Preserve District Board President Daniel Hebreard said he was unaware of the referendum draft.
“One of the reasons for this referendum is because the residents of DuPage County do not appreciate the strong arm Chicago style political tactics from the new forest preserve board,” Manzo said.
