The Chicago Wilderness and its Critics

Abstract

under fire in Chicago. I n a remarkable turnabout, less than six months after proudly heralding the debut of the Chicago Wilderness, Cook County Board President John Stroger issued an executive order last September calling an abrupt halt to all restoration activities in the Forest Preserve District of Cook County. Suddenly, a highly-regarded 19-yearold partnership between volunteer restorationists and the Cook County Forest Preserve District, which had served as a model of public/private collaboration nationally and internationally (R&MN 12(1):57), became the object of attack in the press and scrutiny by the very Board of Commissioners that had blithely approved its budget and plans annually and that had signed on as a charter member of Chicago Wilderness, the new coalition of 34 public and private agencies and organizations dedicated to preserving and restoring biodiversity in the Chicago region and to educating the public about the area’s globally rare natural resources (see accompanying story by Laurel Ross). How, then, did such a well-established restoration program come under fire ? Why did the County Board president summarily proclaim a moratorium on restoration activities leading thousands of volunteers throughout Cook County to fear that years of work restoring prairie remnants, woodlands and wetlands might be severely imperiled? And what kind of resolution could be achieved in response to a group of citizens vociferously opposing restoration activities and declaring that no healthy trees should be cut?