New Preserve Opens Additional Lake Michigan Shoreline & Rare Ravine Habitat to the Public

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Openlands Restores Former Military Land, Continues Burnham's Legacy

September 13, 2009
Contact: Charles Mutscheller
312-863-6260

FORT SHERIDAN, IL—Today, the Openlands Lakeshore Preserve, located just 25 miles north of Chicago, opens a mile of Lake Michigan shoreline and rare ravine habitat never before accessible to the public.

"The Openlands Lakeshore Preserve exemplifies the work we do: connecting people to open spaces and natural areas in northeastern Illinois and the surrounding region," says Openlands executive director Jerry Adelmann. "Unlike most Lake Michigan shoreline in Illinois, the Preserve enables people to visit a rare and unique environment that’s been off limits to the public for over a hundred years. This is a natural treasure that can be enjoyed by people of all ages and provides an opportunity to experience the beauty of Lake Michigan’s shore.”

Visitors to the Preserve, a Green Legacy Project of this year's Burnham Plan Centennial, will experience towering bluffs and three-quarter-mile-long Bartlett Ravine, also a rare natural environment that people can explore. "Bartlett contains an extraordinary amalgamation of plant life…it’s completely unlike any other timber tract on the planet, and it sustains a tremendous amount of biodiversity,” according to botanist Gerould Wilhelm, who co-authored the definitive Plants of the Chicago Region.

Built in 1888, the U.S. Army’s Fort Sheridan served as a mobilization, training, and administrative center from the Spanish-American War through World War II. Between 1953 and 1973, it housed the Cold War base for servicing and supplying all NIKE anti-missile systems in the upper Midwest. Because the military restricted access to the property, areas such as Bartlett Ravine experienced limited human impact.

Fort Sheridan was decommissioned in 1993, and the northern part of the lakeshore and critical open spaces were later transferred to the Lake County Forest Preserve District. In 2006 Congressman Mark Kirk helped negotiate a conservation agreement that transferred the southern part of the lakefront and the adjoining bluffs and ravines to Openlands for permanent protection. The following spring, careful restoration of the property began with two major grants—$4 million from the Grand Victoria Foundation and $2 million from the Hamill Family Foundation. Today, more than 150 native plants can be found at the Preserve, which is also a migratory stopover for tens of thousands of birds.

A specially designed interpretive plan allows visitors to embark on easy-to-follow self-guided tours that reveal the Preserve's rich geological, biological, and cultural histories, which date to over 10,000 years ago. Docent-led tours, conducted by members of the Garden Guild of Winnetka, will occur regularly throughout the year and by special arrangement.

Additionally, Openlands will launch an innovative curriculum designed to help children appreciate this unique natural area, utilizing the Preserve as a living laboratory to teach science, math, and social studies to students in the third through fifth grades. The program will be piloted this fall at twelve schools throughout the area, including St. James, in nearby Highwood; Greenwood Elementary, in Waukegan; and Hayt Elementary, in Chicago.

"We want to help all people, regardless of age and income, make a direct and meaningful connection with the natural world surrounding them," adds Adelmann. "This was one of Daniel Burnham's guiding principles, and it's a vision that we want to advance at the Openlands Lakeshore Preserve."

The Openlands Lakeshore Preserve is one of twenty Green Legacy Projects being highlighted by this year’s Burnham Plan Centennial. Each Green Legacy Project closes a critical gap in the interconnected network of open spaces and natural areas that link the communities of our region—from southwest Wisconsin, through Illinois, to northwest Indiana. Recognition of these projects is intended to celebrate Burnham’s innovative thinking and foresight and continue a tradition of comprehensive regional development.

Openlands raised the funds needed to open the Preserve for public enjoyment. To date private sources—corporations, foundations, and individuals—have contributed $9.2 million of the $12 million required to complete the project. In 2011 two more ravines, Van Horne and Schenck, and the bluff top overlooking Lake Michigan, featuring overlooks and trails, will open.

Founded in 1963, Openlands protects the natural and open spaces of northeastern Illinois and the surrounding region to ensure cleaner air and water, protect natural habitats and wildlife, and help balance and enrich our lives.

The year 2009 is the 100th anniversary of the publication of Daniel Burnham’s and Edward Bennett’s Plan of Chicago, one of the world’s first and most visible comprehensive regional plans. Burnham’s admonition to “make no little plans” has been a guiding principle for Chicago and for generations of planners and builders in cities around the globe. One hundred years later, the Burnham Plan still inspires us to be visionary, think regionally, recognize the value of beauty and conservation, and act deliberately to turn our plans into reality for the benefit of all the people of the region.

More than 250 partners including museums, professional associations, civic and community organizations, educational institutions, and others are collaborating to develop programs that will shape the Centennial and engage a broad audience. For more information, please visit www.burnhamplan100.org.

Support for the Centennial’s Green Legacy program is provided by the Exelon Foundation, the Presenting Sponsor for the Environment.

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