By Natalie Bump Vena
Why did the State of Illinois establish a Forest Preserve District in northeastern Illinois, where forests made up a small fraction of the landscape? And what were the ecological consequences of doing so? With jurisdiction in the county that encompasses Chicago, the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, IL today manages 69,000 acres of protected land, mostly located in the city’s suburbs. At the turn of the twentieth century, civic and political leaders dreamed of establishing this system of open land as a natural retreat for Chicagoans who could not otherwise afford to leave the teeming metropolis. To begin realizing that vision, Chicago’s City Council hired Architect Dwight Perkins to compile a report for an enlarged park system in 1903. Perkins in turn asked Landscape Architect Jens Jensen to recommend land to include in what they called an “outer belt park.” They published the report in 1904.
During archival research, I became interested in how and why Jensen and Perkins’ inclusive vision for an outer belt park composed of wetlands, prairies, and forests became, by 1916, a Forest Preserve District with the purpose of acquiring and protecting natural forests. That evolution was even more puzzling to me, because Perkins and Jensen both had strong ties to Chicago’s Prairie School of Architecture made famous by Frank Lloyd Wright. While Jensen described all of Cook County’s landscapes in the 1904 report, he made clear the prairie’s ubiquity, writing: “The predominating character of the landscape around Chicago is that of prairie” (83). Through a combination of legal research and examination of administrative documents from the early twentieth century, I gradually realized that preservation in Cook County complicates understandings of U.S. conservation law. Indeed, the case exemplifies how legal preservation may save some landscapes, while degrading others.
After Perkins and Jensen published their report, civic leaders and politicians began the legal and political work necessary to create an outer belt park for Chicago. Between 1904 and 1913, the Illinois State legislature passed three different Forest Preserve Acts. Illinois’s governor did not sign the Act of 1905 into law and the Illinois Supreme Court found the Act of 1909 unconstitutional. The Cook County Board of Commissioners finally organized the District in 1916, based on the Act of 1913. By studying documents produced during that protracted process, I found that the politicians and civic leaders organizing to create an outer belt park narrowed their efforts to protect woodlands, as a legal strategy to achieve the greater goal of providing Chicago’s public with more open space.
Although the Act of 1905 ultimately failed, it left an imprint on subsequent legislation by introducing the term “forest preserve” to describe the proposed district. The Act of 1905’s drafters likely named the bill for forest preservation, in order to avoid charges of double taxation (Hayes 1949: 10). Chicago already had a number of park commissions, each one responsible for a different region in the city. Based on contextual research regarding contemporary landscape architecture in Chicago and on the East Coast, I believe that the drafters invoked forests in the legislation’s title to appeal to popular conceptions of nature in America at the turn of the twentieth century. The Act of 1909’s drafters kept the forest idea in name, but not in purpose. Although called “An act to provide for the creation and management of forest preserve districts,” the Act of 1909 had the broad aim of preserving local species and “scenic beauties” (Laws of the State of Illinois 1909: Section 13). In December 1911, the Illinois Supreme Court struck down the law on equal protection grounds in People v. Rinaker.
In non-binding language, the Rinaker court also criticized the drafters for composing an enabling statute for a special purpose district named to preserve forests, but that embraced other subjects and failed to articulate forest protection as the law’s central purpose. As the baffled court pointed out, one could even interpret the legislation as authorizing the board to protect prairies. They stated, “a reading of the statute leaves it open to grave doubt whether it does not authorize organizing a district in the prairie, without any forest whatever in it” (People ex rel. Koch v. Rinaker et al, 252 Ill. 275 ).
In response to the Rinaker court, the Act of 1913’s drafters made clear that the Forest Preserve District’s purpose was to acquire and to protect “natural forests.” While the Act of 1909 gave the District board the authority to “hold lands for the purpose of protecting and preserving the flora and fauna and scenic beauties of the State,” the Act of 1913 stated the board could “hold lands containing one or more natural forests or parts thereof, for the purpose of protecting and preserving the flora and fauna and scenic beauties within such district [emphasis mine]” (Laws of the State of Illinois 1913: Section 5). The Illinois State Legislature passed the bill, and the governor signed it into law in June 1913.
While examining the early Official Proceedings of the Forest Preserve District Board of Commissioners, I learned the extent to which the commissioners prioritized the acquisition of woodlands when they began purchasing land in 1916. However, due to the relative scarcity of forests in Cook County, the commissioners also had to acquire farmland, prairies, and wetlands to build the District’s holdings.
In order to resolve the increasing discrepancy between the characteristics of the property and the name and statutory purpose of the District, the commissioners increasingly turned to forestation. District leaders even described the large-scale tree planting as “reforestation,” thus creating the illusion that they were establishing something that had previously existed on the land (e.g., Reinberg 1920: 13). To protect the newly planted trees, the District also adopted a policy of fire prevention, which contributed to the near disappearance of the fire-dependent prairie ecosystem. In carrying out their land management policies, the District depended on the Civilian Conservation Corps and other Depression-era work relief labor to manually transform large swaths of the District into forests. During post-war suburbanization, the District scrambled to acquire more land at the edges of Cook County, much of which had been plowed for corn and soybeans. Without the abundant manual labor available during the 1930s, the District used mechanized tools that enabled them to plant forests quickly and with fewer people. Major forestation and fire prevention efforts continued through the 1970s.
Just as Dwight Perkins and Jens Jensen’s inclusive vision for an outer park belt got lost in the legal battle to found the District, Cook County’s prairies nearly disappeared during the twentieth century as District staff constructed a forest landscape to match the enabling statute’s name and language. Throughout my archival research, interviews with District staff, and fieldwork alongside interlocutors restoring prairies, I sensed the deep loss attendant to the District’s twentieth century land management policies. For instance, I read an account written in 1940 by an ecologist from the University of Wisconsin, who observed that the District had planted tree seedlings on remnant prairies in several northern Cook County forest preserves (Sperry 1940). And during an interview, a retired forest preserve naturalist recalled visiting a prairie in southern Cook County during the 1950s, where he and his troop of boy scouts found species like compass plant, prairie dock, and smooth green snakes. He remembered that soon after, “The Forest Preserve District, in its infinite wisdom, planted trees. Now there are no green snakes there.” I asked him why he thought the District wanted to change that prairie, and he intuitively said, “Because it’s called a ‘forest preserve.’”
In their efforts to create more open land for Cook County’s public, the District’s founders made legal compromises that produced an agency named for woodlands with a statutory purpose reflecting its namesake. The District’s leaders subsequently cited that law as guiding their forestation policy, which entailed planting thousands of trees on prairie remnants as well as prairies that had been plowed. The case of the Forest Preserve District of Cook County demonstrates, then, how the legal and administrative process of protecting lands may cause one landscape to be found, while another is lost.
Natalie Bump Vena is a Ph.D./J.D. candidate in Northwestern University’s Department of Anthropology and School of Law. She grew up on the south side of Chicago, and visited the Cook County forest preserves every weekend with her father. In her dissertation, she examines why the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, IL has repeatedly transformed the land that it is mandated to preserve over the past 100 years.
Photography credits: “Cook County Forest Preserve Photographs” (Richard J. Daley Special Collections; University Archives, University of Illinois at Chicago)
Hayes, William P. 1949. Development of the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, Illinois. M.A. Thesis, Department of History, DePaul University.
Jensen, Jens. 1904. “Report of the Landscape Architect.” In Report of the Special Park Commission to the City Council of Chicago. Chicago: Hartman Company Printers.
Laws of the State of Illinois Enacted by the Forty-Fourth General Assembly. 1909. Forestry, Forest Preserve Districts. Springfield: Illinois State Journal Co.
Laws of the State of Illinois Enacted by the Forty-Eighth General Assembly. 1913. Forestry, Forest Preserve Districts. Springfield: Illinois State Journal Co.
Reinberg, Peter. 1920. Fourth Annual Message of Peter Reinberg, President, Board of Forest Preserve Commissioners of the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, State of Illinois. Chicago History Museum Research Center, Chicago, IL.
Sperry, Theodore M. 1940. “Report on Proposed Prairie Restoration for Forest Preserve District of Cook County.” Forest Preserve District of Cook County Records, University of Illinois at Chicago Special Collections and University Archives, Chicago, IL.
Kwa nini jimbo la Illinois lilianzisha Wilaya ya Kuhifadhi Msitu kaskazini mashariki mwa Illinois, ambapo misitu ilifanyiza sehemu ndogo ya mandhari? Na matokeo ya kufanya hivyo yalikuwa nini kwa mazingira? Kwa kuwa eneo la wilaya ya Chicago ni eneo la wilaya ya Cook County, Illinois, eneo hilo lina eneo la ardhi ya ekari 69,000 (mita ya ekari 69,000) ambayo ni sehemu ya wilaya ya Chicago. Katika karne ya ishirini, viongozi wa kisiasa na wa kiraia walitamani kuanzisha mfumo huu wa ardhi ya wazi kama marudio ya asili kwa watu wa Chicago ambao kwa njia nyingine hawangeweza kuachana na mji mkuu wenye msukosuko. Mwaka 1903, Baraza la Jiji la Chicago lilimwajiri msanifu-ujenzi Dwight Perkins kuandika ripoti ya ujenzi wa mbuga kubwa zaidi. "Perkins alimwomba Jens Jensen, msanifu wa mazingira, kupendekeza ardhi ya kujumuisha katika kile walichokiita ""hifadhi ya ukanda wa nje"" na walichapisha ripoti hiyo mnamo 1904."" Katika utafiti wa kumbukumbu, nilivutiwa na jinsi na kwa nini maono ya Jensen na Perkins ya ujumuishaji wa mbuga ya ukanda wa nje iliyoundwa na maeneo ya mvua, nyanda, na misitu iligeuka, mnamo 1916, kuwa Wilaya ya Kuhifadhi Msitu kwa kusudi la kupata na kulinda misitu ya asili. "Kama vile, Perkins na Jensen walikuwa na uhusiano wa karibu na ""Prairie School of Architecture"" ya Chicago, iliyojulikana na Frank Lloyd Wright." Wakati Jensen alielezea mandhari zote za Cook County katika ripoti ya 1904, aliweka wazi kuwa eneo la prairie lilikuwa kila mahali, akiandika: "Mtazamo mkubwa wa mandhari karibu na Chicago ni ule wa prairie". Kwa kuchanganya utafiti wa kisheria na uchunguzi wa nyaraka za kiutawala kutoka mwanzoni mwa karne ya ishirini, hatua kwa hatua niligundua kwamba kuhifadhi katika Kaunti ya Cook hufanya uelewa wa sheria ya uhifadhi wa Marekani kuwa ngumu. Kwa kweli, kesi hiyo inaonyesha jinsi kuhifadhiwa kisheria kunavyoweza kuokoa mandhari fulani, huku kukidhoofisha nyingine. Baada ya Perkins na Jensen kuchapisha ripoti yao, viongozi wa kiraia na wanasiasa walianza kazi ya kisheria na kisiasa muhimu kuunda bustani ya ukanda wa nje kwa Chicago. Kati ya mwaka wa 1904 na 1913, Bunge la Jimbo la Illinois lilipitisha Sheria tatu tofauti za Kuhifadhi Misitu. Mtawala wa Illinois alikataa kuidhinisha sheria hiyo mwaka 1905 na Mahakama Kuu ya Illinois iliona kuwa haifai. Baraza la Wakomishna wa Kaunti ya Cook lilianzisha Wilaya ya Cook mnamo 1916 na kuanzisha Mkataba wa Wilaya ya Cook mnamo 1913. Kwa kusoma nyaraka zilizotengenezwa wakati wa mchakato huo wa muda mrefu, niligundua kuwa wanasiasa na viongozi wa kiraia waliopanga kuunda mbuga ya ukanda wa nje walipunguza juhudi zao za kulinda misitu, kama mkakati wa kisheria kufikia lengo kubwa la kutoa umma wa Chicago nafasi ya wazi zaidi. Ingawa Sheria ya 1905 hatimaye ilishindwa, iliacha alama kwenye sheria ya baadaye kwa kuanzisha neno <unk>mwitu kuhifadhi<unk> kuelezea wilaya iliyopendekezwa. Sheria ya mwaka 1905 iliitwa kwa jina la uhifadhi wa misitu ili kuepuka malipo ya kodi mbili. Chicago tayari ilikuwa na tume kadhaa za mbuga, kila moja ikiwa na daraka la eneo tofauti jijini. Kulingana na utafiti wa muktadha kuhusu usanifu wa mazingira wa kisasa huko Chicago na Pwani ya Mashariki, ninaamini kwamba waandishi walitaja misitu katika kichwa cha sheria ili kuvutia dhana maarufu za asili nchini Marekani mwanzoni mwa karne ya ishirini. Sheria ya mwaka 1909 iliweka wazo la msitu kwa jina, lakini si kwa kusudi. "Hii ni kwa sababu sheria ya mwaka 1909 ilitakiwa ""kuandaa na kusimamia wilaya za kuhifadhi misitu,"" na ililenga kuhifadhi spishi za asili na ""mambo mazuri ya asili"" (Sheria ya Jimbo la Illinois, Sehemu ya 13)." Katika kesi ya Desemba 1911, Mahakama Kuu ya Illinois ilikataza sheria hiyo kwa sababu ya ulinzi sawa katika kesi ya Watu dhidi ya Rineker. Mahakama ya Rinocerco pia iliwakosoa waandishi wa sheria kwa kuunda sheria ya kuwezesha wilaya ya kusudi maalum iliyoitwa kuhifadhi misitu, lakini ambayo ilikumbatia mada nyingine na ilishindwa kuelezea ulinzi wa misitu kama kusudi kuu la sheria. Kama vile mahakama hiyo ilivyokata tamaa ilivyosema, mtu angeweza hata kutafsiri sheria hiyo kuwa inampa bodi mamlaka ya kulinda nyanda za nyasi. Walisema, "kusoma kwa sheria hiyo kunaacha wazi kwa shaka kubwa ikiwa hairuhusu kuandaa wilaya katika nyanda, bila msitu wowote ndani yake". Koch v. Rineker et al, 252 Ill. 275). "Kama ilivyoelezwa katika Sheria ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya ya Wilaya.""" Bunge la jimbo la Illinois lilipitisha muswada huo, na gavana akautia sahihi kuwa sheria mwezi Juni 1913. Katika kitabu cha Official Proceedings of the Forest Preserve District Board of Commissioners, tulijifunza jinsi tume ya mkoa ilivyotoa kipaumbele kwa ununuzi wa misitu wakati walipoanza kununua ardhi mwaka 1916. Hata hivyo, kwa sababu ya upungufu wa misitu katika Cook County, kamishna pia alikuwa na kupata mashamba, prairies, na maeneo ya mvua ya kujenga mashamba ya Wilaya. Ili kutatua kutoelewana kuongezeka kati ya sifa za mali na jina na kusudi la kisheria la Wilaya, kamishna zaidi akageuka kwa misitu. "Viongozi wa wilaya hata walielezea kupanda miti kwa kiwango kikubwa kama ""mimea ya misitu,"" hivyo kuunda udanganyifu kwamba walikuwa kuanzisha kitu ambacho kilikuwa kiko hapo awali kwenye ardhi (kwa mfano, Reinberg 1920: 13)." Ili kulinda miti iliyopandwa hivi karibuni, Wilaya hiyo pia ilichukua sera ya kuzuia moto, ambayo ilichangia karibu kutoweka kwa mfumo wa ikolojia wa nyasi unaotegemea moto. Katika kutekeleza sera zao za usimamizi wa ardhi, Wilaya ilitegemea Civil Conservation Corps na kazi nyingine za misaada ya kazi ya kipindi cha Mshuko wa Kiuchumi ili kubadilisha kwa mikono maeneo makubwa ya Wilaya kuwa misitu. Wakati wa baada ya vita suburbanization, Wilaya scrambled kupata ardhi zaidi katika kingo za Cook County, ambayo mengi yalikuwa ploughed kwa mahindi na soya. Kwa kuwa hakukuwa na kazi nyingi za mikono katika miaka ya 1930, Wilaya hiyo ilitumia vifaa vya mashine ambavyo viliwawezesha kupanda misitu haraka na kwa watu wachache. Maendeleo makubwa ya ukataji miti na kuzuia moto yaliendelea katika miaka ya 1970. Kama vile maono ya Dwight Perkins na Jens Jensen ya ukanda wa nje wa mbuga ilipotea katika vita vya kisheria kuanzisha Wilaya, nyanda za Cook County zilipotea karibu wakati wa karne ya ishirini wakati wafanyikazi wa Wilaya walijenga mandhari ya msitu ili kufanana na jina na lugha ya sheria ya kuwezesha. Katika utafiti wangu wa kumbukumbu, mahojiano na wafanyakazi wa Wilaya, na kazi ya shamba pamoja na wasemaji kurudisha prairies, nilihisi hasara kubwa msaidizi kwa Wilaya ya karne ya ishirini sera za usimamizi wa ardhi. Kwa mfano, nilisoma simulizi lililoandikwa mwaka 1940 na mtaalamu mmoja wa mazingira kutoka Chuo Kikuu cha Wisconsin, ambaye aliona kwamba Wilaya hiyo ilikuwa imepanda miche ya miti kwenye nyanda za malisho katika maeneo kadhaa ya kaskazini ya wilaya ya Cook (Sperry, 1940). Katika mahojiano, mtaalamu mmoja wa asili wa hifadhi ya misitu alikumbuka kutembelea nyanda za mashambani kusini mwa Kaunti ya Cook wakati wa miaka ya 1950, ambapo yeye na kikundi chake cha wasomi walipata spishi kama mmea wa compass, doki ya nyanda, na nyoka laini ya kijani. Alikumbuka kwamba muda mfupi baadaye, "Mkoa wa Hifadhi ya Msitu, katika hekima yake isiyo na kikomo, ulipanda miti. "Nilimuuliza kwa nini District ilitaka kubadilisha eneo hilo la malisho, na yeye alisema, ""Kwa sababu inaitwa ""kuhifadhi msitu"" katika juhudi zao za kuunda ardhi wazi zaidi kwa umma wa Cook County, waanzilishi wa Wilaya walifanya makubaliano ya kisheria ambayo yalitokeza shirika lililoitwa kwa misitu na kusudi la kisheria linaloonyesha jina lake." Viongozi wa Wilaya baadaye walitaja sheria hiyo kama kuongoza sera yao ya misitu, ambayo ilihusisha kupanda maelfu ya miti kwenye mabaki ya nyasi na vile vile nyasi ambazo zilikuwa zimepandwa. Kisa cha Wilaya ya Hifadhi ya Msitu ya Cook County inaonyesha jinsi mchakato wa kisheria na kiutawala wa kulinda ardhi unaweza kusababisha mandhari moja kupatikana, wakati mwingine umepotea. Natalie Bump Vena ni Ph.D. mgombea katika Chuo Kikuu cha Northwestern's Idara ya Anthropology na Shule ya Sheria. Alilelewa upande wa kusini wa Chicago, na alitembelea hifadhi ya msitu wa Cook County kila mwishoni mwa wiki na baba yake. Katika dissertation yake, yeye inachunguza kwa nini Forest Preserve District ya Cook County, IL mara kwa mara kubadilisha ardhi kwamba ni amri ya kuhifadhi zaidi ya miaka 100 iliyopita. "Kutoka kwa ""Cook County Forest Preserve Photographs"" (Richard J. Daley Special Collections; University Archives, University of Illinois at Chicago) Hayes, William P. 1949" Maendeleo ya Wilaya ya Hifadhi ya Msitu ya Cook County, Illinois. M.A. Thesis, Idara ya Historia, Chuo Kikuu cha DePaul. Jensen, Jens. 1904 - Mwezi wa Mwezi <unk>Ripoti ya Landscape Architect.<unk> Katika Ripoti ya Tume Maalum ya Hifadhi kwa Halmashauri ya Jiji la Chicago. Chicago: Kampuni ya Hartman Printers. Sheria za Jimbo la Illinois zilizopitishwa na Bunge la Mkutano wa arobaini na nne. Mwaka wa 1909 Misitu, Wilaya za Kuhifadhi Misitu. Springfield: Illinois State Journal Co. Sheria za Jimbo la Illinois Iliyotolewa na Mkutano Mkuu wa arobaini na nane. Mwaka wa 1913. Misitu, Wilaya za Kuhifadhi Misitu. Springfield: Illinois State Journal Co. Reinberg, Peter. Mwaka wa 1920. Ujumbe wa Mwaka wa Nne wa Peter Reinberg, Rais, Bodi ya Kamishna wa Uhifadhi wa Msitu wa Wilaya ya Uhifadhi wa Msitu wa Cook County, Jimbo la Illinois. Kituo cha Utafiti cha Jumba la Makumbusho la Historia la Chicago, Chicago, IL. Sperry, Theodore M. "Kulingana na ripoti ya ""Urekebishaji wa Prairie uliopendekezwa kwa Wilaya ya Uhifadhi wa Msitu wa Kaunti ya Cook"" na ""Urekebishaji wa Msitu wa Wilaya ya Cook,"" Chuo Kikuu cha Illinois katika Chicago Special Collections na University Archives, Chicago, IL."