Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Friends of the Parks (FOTP) is a non-profit organization in Chicago, Illinois. Formed in 1975, it acts as a watchdog group and environmental advocate for the Chicago area. Specifically, it monitors the condition and safety of the Chicago Park District and the forest preserves of Cook County. FOTP's office is in downtown Chicago.
Des Plaines (/ d ɪ s ˈ p l eɪ n z /) is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States.Per the 2020 census, the population was 60,675. [4] The city is a suburb of Chicago and is located just north of O'Hare International Airport.
The area was a weekend getaway for businessman Edward L. Ryerson, who built a cabin there in 1928. He built three other cabins for friends, and had a country house built in 1942. It is representative of the type of getaways used by successful Chicagoans who sought the tranquil surroundings of the Des Plaines River.
Preserved within the park is the western end of the historic portage linking the Chicago River to the Des Plaines River, thereby linking the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River. A memorial depicting the portage of French explorers is located at the parking area. A trail leads from the memorial down into the portage wilderness area.
Included within Des Plaines Fish and Wildlife Area is the 78-acre Grant Creek Prairie Nature Preserve and the 575-acre Des Plaines Dolomite Prairies Land and Water Reserve. Both contain prairie communities; the latter includes 9 acres of rare, dry-mesic dolomite prairie, constituting 50% of the remaining natural community of that type in Illinois.
The Des Plaines River today is not the river as it was in, for example, 1673 when Jolliet and Marquette first passed through the Chicago Portage. During the period 1892-1900 the original channel of the river was straightened, cutting off the part that the Jolliet and Marquette party used to reach the west end of the portage. [15]
Forest preserves serve a different purpose than urban parks and are typically maintained for the conservation and restoration of habitat.Forest preserves may contain nature centers and other facilities, picnic groves, and hiking, biking, and equestrian trails, but, apart from public golf courses, do not typically contain land set aside for other sports activities.
It joins the Des Plaines River from the south to form the Illinois River, approximately 50 miles (80 km) southwest of Chicago. The Kankakee River Basin drains 2,989 square miles (7,740 km 2) in northwest Indiana, 2,169 square miles (5,620 km 2) in northeast Illinois, and about seven square miles (18 km 2) in southwest Lower Michigan. The ...