Cook County Commissioner Peter Silvestri (R-9th) has seen the forest preserves in the worst of times and, he hopes soon, the best of times.
The preserves cut across a large portion of his district on the Northwest Side and near Northwest and West suburbs. Though relatively crime-free – except for the occasional dumped-body – his neck of the woods has become a hotbed of controversy in recent debates about restoration and recreation uses. Elected in 1994, the commissioner sat down with Anne Look to discuss improvements made since a recent management overhaul and the challenges the preserves still face.
Anne Look: Your office receives more calls about the forest preserve than about the county. What kinds of calls do you get?
Peter Silvestri: We get calls about “I drove through the woods and there was a couple getting a little too amorous.” “There was as party going on in the woods at such and such place last night and they burned a picnic table.” Or “I was walking by the river and somebody threw a refrigerator in it.” Those kind of maintenance-type things.
If you want to take your kid to the woods to play baseball, you don’t expect him to see somebody fooling around, whoever they’re fooling around with … If you’re going to the woods with your kid to play ball, you shouldn’t have 50 drunks there competing for the space and the beauty of the woods.
Look: What about poaching and other conservation-related offenses?
Silvestri: We never get complaints about that, even though it exists, because people don’t realize it. It’s a problem.
Look: Do most people know the difference between a park and a forest preserve, or a gardening shop and a forest preserve?
Silvestri: Not in Chicago.
I had a relative that took three bushes out of the forest preserves in DuPage County. The sheriff went to the house and said, “You know, someone saw you.” “Well, what’s wrong with that?” [my relative replied.] It’s that “the forest preserve planted those bushes for a purpose. You can’t just take them home.” So, luckily, they caught a cop that said, “You know what? Take them out of your yard – because they were already planted – put them in the trunk of the police car and we’ll call it even.” He could have arrested him … He [my relative] just didn’t get it.
There could be a tree on the ground in the forest preserve. [Residents ask:] “When are they gonna take it away?” It’s not a park. If it doesn’t pose a danger, it stays there. It’s a forest. Or, “when are they gonna cut the grass?” Well, they cut the grass in picnic groves and softball fields, but they don’t cut the grass everywhere. We also have problems in my area where the state highway has a right of way, so they mow that. But as soon as the right of way expires, there are high grasses. People think they’re weeds. “When are they gonna cut them down?” Well, they’re not going to cut them down. It’s part of the forest.
It’s a forest, not a park.
I don’t know how we’re ever going to educate the overwhelming majority of people on those issues.
Look: The forest preserves have become better at communicating with its neighbors but do you find that residents living around preserves still sometimes view them as extensions of their backyards instead of public land?
Silvestri: People move across the street from a church and can’t stand it on Sunday. People move across the street from a school and get upset because kids cross their lawn. It was all there when you bought it. The forest preserves were there before the residents. And, yes, the Forest Preserve district has an obligation to be sensitive to concerns of people who live near the forest preserves, but it can never become a proprietary discussion and that’s what happens.
Look: Do you see a lot of encroachment – residents or companies extending their lot onto forest preserve property – in your area?
Silvestri: The type of encroachment I see is basically that there’s a house next to a forest preserve. It’s a 50-foot lot and they mow 55 feet. It makes their yard a little bigger and nobody really notices … I think most of it is inadvertent. For example, the guy who mows his lawn is probably saying, “Well, I’m doing the forest preserve a favor, mowing their weeds.” But, in fact, those weeds may be sensitive plants.
Look: The Cook County Forest Preserves have a mandated, dual role: preservation and recreation. How do you balance those sometimes-conflicting functions?
Silvestri: The forest preserves, by definition, are to preserve the forest – the woods, the woodlands, the prairies, and the savannas that make up the woods. But, as a matter of reality, almost since the inception of the forest preserves, a recreation component has really always been part of it. If it were 1913, whether or not to allow for recreational uses of the forest preserves would be a legitimate conversation to have. But, it’s not. It’s 2008. For ninety-five years or so, the recreation has been part of it. So, in reality, anything short of starting over is really a moot conversation.
Today’s question becomes how much of a balance do you have? Do you tear down the woods for more recreation? I would say no. I’d say if it’s recreational now, you keep it recreational; but you don’t intend necessarily to create more recreational spaces. It’s not a park district. ... If it were purely conservation, there would be very limited access to people; and you certainly don’t want that [either]. You want people into the woods.
Look: Where do you draw the line with recreation that falls in line with the mission of the preserve and other outdoor activities, such as mountain biking, that can damage the land?
Silvestri: Do you enforce a ban [on mountain biking] or do you provide a space for it somewhere? Theoretically, you say: it’s a ban. But, with the hundred police officers patrolling 67,000 acres in two shifts, it’s going to be difficult to ban every mountain bike that ever goes through there.
There are a lot of things that are illegal but aren’t enforceable. You can’t use your cell phone in a car in Chicago. Drive home. See how many people are using their cell phones. It’s impossible to enforce, and that’s true for the forest preserves because of their mere size. The beauty of the forest preserves is that it’s an open environment for you to enjoy the basics of environment. But, the problem with it is that it’s an open environment. It’s very difficult to police.
Look: What do you think about proposals to separate the Forest Preserve Board from the Cook County Board?
Silvestri: I have mixed emotions on that. I firmly believe that the forest preserves are being run right now correctly. The answer to improving government is not creating more government. Right now, the forest preserve government has sort of a big brother to lean on – or big sister, whatever your perspective is – to lean on when it needs certain resources.
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The only valid argument is that there’s a consistent contradiction in the two roles. Right now as a county board, we’re asked to consider widening Quentin Road through the forest preserves; but as forest preserve commissioners, our position should be: we’re not going to destroy the woods to widen the road. But, that’s a balancing … More government is not necessarily better government.
Around here now, the Forest Preserve is the quiet side of government, and the county is the problematic government. When I first got here, it was the opposite. The Forest Preserve was just one problem after another.
Look: What about land acquisition efforts?
Silvestri: I think we’ve been remiss. I’ve been arguing [for] that since ’94. I’m chairman of Zoning and Building. Every time someone comes in for a subdivision, that’s a lost opportunity. Every farm that becomes a subdivision is a lost opportunity.
Just picture Cook County without the forest preserves. It would just be neighborhood on top of neighborhood all the way to the airport, all the way to Elmhurst.
Look: Do people undervalue the current land holdings?
Silvestri: People say all the time: If they county doesn’t have the money, why don’t you sell some of the forest preserves for shopping centers? The answer is very simple: because that’s not what they’re for. You can only sell them once. Then, what do you do next year for the budget? I tell people it’s like saying you’re too fat, so you’re going to cut your arm off. That’s makes no sense. It makes no sense at all. You don’t get rid of your forest preserves.
Look: How important is cleanliness, as in facilities and grounds maintenance, to making the woods safer and discouraging graffiti, vandalism and littering?
Silvestri: Someone walks into a dirty bathroom, they’re gonna make it dirtier. Someone walks into a clean bathroom, they might have some scruples to keep it clean. Absolutely true. If you want to do something illegal in the woods, but there’s a greater police presence, you won’t do it.
When I first got there, Monday mornings were a disaster in any woods that you went to. The garbage cans were overflowing. There was garbage all over. People, they just abused it. Now, you won’t see that because the administration has scheduled people to work even on the weekends to empty the garbage cans.
We don’t have recycling bins in the woods. We should have that. A government and a system that’s dedicated to the environment should have recycling. It’s consistent with the mission of the district.
Look: If maintenance and public safety have improved over the past five years in the forest preserves, have public perceptions just not caught up yet?
Silvestri: The perceptions have changed. I don’t think they’ve changed enough. People still see it as “I’m going to take my kid there, and there’s going to be some gang-bangers selling drugs in the corner.” … There are a lot of wonderful things about the forest preserves, and a lot of people recognize that too. But, it’s the one story of the kid that went there and saw a drug dealer. Then, suddenly there are all these drug dealers in the forest preserves. A lot of it is misperception.
Is it possible that you’ll see something you don’t want to see? Yes, it’s possible you’ll see something on your corner you don’t want to see. People feel isolated because they’re in the woods. We are city people generally, so we’re not comfortable with the thought of being out in the woods without a policeman being right there, easy access. But, it’s a safe place and it’s a clean place, much better than it was.
Look: Do you think the current preserves are underused?
Silvestri: I don’t think in my area they are, but I represent an area too where the forest preserves are too small. If you go by on a Saturday or Sunday, they’re packed.
They’ve [The administrators have] gone a long way, but they have more to do in terms of encouraging people to use the forest preserves. Right now, the big push is volunteerism to get people into the woods, but I think the next push should be to just go hang out.
There are places in the forest preserves that you just feel like you’re in God’s country. You’re just way out somewhere. You don’t feel like you’re in the middle of a major metropolitan area, and that’s one of the beauties of it.