Illinois Audubon Expands Park

Illinois Audubon Society partners with Joliet Park District to expand Pilcher Park   Non-profit and local government join together to protect natural area   JOLIET, IL.  The Illinois Audubon Society today announced its acquisition of 80-acres adjacent to Joliet Park District’s Pilcher Park in Will County. With a generous $1.38 million dollar grant from Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation, the Society purchased the property for $1.9 million dollars. The purchase price exceeds an all-time high in the Society’s history as a land trust. Pending the District’s receipt of an Illinois Department of Natural Resources Open Space Land Acquisition and Development (OSLAD) grant, the Society intends to sell the parcel to Joliet Park District (JPD) at a bargain-sale. Through its Natural Areas Program, the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation assists nonprofit organizations and local governments in acquiring important natural areas and wildlife habitat. Since its inception in 2002, the Foundation has provided over $55 million in grant awards for the protection of habitat at 148 sites located in counties throughout Illinois.   Illinois Audubon Executive Director Tom Clay said, “This acquisition is truly a future model for land protection. We are adding 80-acres of high-quality woodland and wetland communities to one of Joliet’s most beautiful city parks at a minimal cost to taxpayers.” Clay added, “At a time when state and local governments struggle to make ends meet, this transaction demonstrates that private and public organizations can work together in cost-effective ways to protect our most critical landscapes.”   Joliet Park District Chief Executive Officer Dominic Egizio said the District plans to immediately begin working on the addition. “We will demolish existing structures, repair existing roads, address erosion in ravines, culverts and roadsides and align new trails for public use, connecting Pilcher Park to the added acreage,” Egizio said.   Pilcher Park and the surrounding tract offer an appealing mix of graceful ravines, lush bottomland forest and small winding streams. Harlow Higginbotham, an important figure in Chicago during the late nineteenth century, once owned Pilcher Park. Higginbotham was the president of Chicago’s extremely successful Columbian Exposition in 1893. In 1920, Higginbotham sold the parcel to Robert Pilcher, a businessman and self-taught naturalist, who eventually donated his acreage of virgin woodland to the City of Joliet with the stipulation that the land be left wild.   The 80-acre tract buffers Pilcher Park (413-acres) and is in immediate proximity to Highland Park (41-acres) and Higginbotham Woods (239-acres). Pilcher Park is a Category 1 Natural Area Inventory Site (INAI), meaning the site hosts documented high quality natural communities. Glen Marcum, President of Joliet Park District’s (JPD) Board of Commissioners said, “We have wanted to protect this Pilcher Park buffer for many years and today’s acquisition is cause for celebration.” President Marcum and the remaining JPD Board of Directors, Vice-President Art Schultz, Commissioners Tim Broderick, Brett Gould and Sue Gulas, intend to seek Illinois Nature Preserve status for Pilcher Park.   The mission of the Illinois Audubon Society is to promote the perpetuation and appreciation of native plants and animals and the habitats that support them. The Society is an independent, member supported, not-for-profit, statewide organization. Founded in 1897, the Society is Illinois’ oldest private conservation organization with 2250 members, 20 chapters (including Will County Audubon Society) and 19 affiliate groups. The Illinois Audubon Society has protected 3500 acres by investing $8.8 million to protect land and water throughout Illinois.