Illinois Preserve May Revamp Campsites

The Kane County Forest Preserve District near Geneva, Ill., is looking at revamping its campgrounds.
The changes being considered include closing Buffalo Park at Algonquin, a campground in the far north end of the county beset by flooding problems, and opening a new campground in the Grunwald Forest Preserve near Sugar Grove, according to The Courier News, Elgin, Ill.
Members of a special subcommittee on campgrounds met Friday (Oct. 5) to look at the state of preserve campsites, and to consider recommendations. Forest district staff will return with more definite plans based on Friday’s discussion for possible subcommittee recommendations.
They include:

Closing Buffalo Park to camping, although the district would keep the snowboarding hill there open. The campsites were almost destroyed by the flooding Fox River this year and have been closed since mid-August. Monica Meyer, forest district director, said the park might be more suited to passive recreation, such as fishing.

Doubling the size of camping at the Paul Wolff-Burnidge Forest Preserve west of Elgin, where the current 40 campsites on 3.5 acres of the preserve are almost always full in the spring, summer and fall when the weather is nice, Meyer said.

Developing a new campsite at Grunwald Forest Preserve that would have 50 campsites, and another five acres devoted to primitive camping. This site would replace the camping sites lost when the forest district closed Bliss Woods near Sugar Grove for camping in 2004. There has been no camping in the south-end preserves since the closing.
Members of the subcommittee said they liked the idea of camping at Grunwald, although at least one forest preserve commissioner is afraid of what the district might do to the environment in the interest of developing a campsite.
Commissioner Paul Greviskes said he thinks a plan to block a stream to help feed a pond on the site will destroy the habitat in the stream.

Illinois Preserve May Revamp Campsites

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