June 2008 20 / OutdoorIllinois June 2008 OutdoorIllinois / 21
Park development
grants released
Governor Rod R. Blagojevich
announced $25.1 million in
grants for dozens of projects to
renovate existing and develop
new parks throughout Illinois.
Projects include land acquisi-tion,
construction of new trails
and playgrounds and creation of
new recreational opportunities,
including fishing piers and ath-letic
fields.
This year, the Open Space
Lands Acquisition and Develop-ment
program, facilitated
through DNR, is providing funds
for 71 projects. Of those, 12 will
result in the purchase of new
land and 59 focus on outdoor
recreation development.
Bureau County
Princeton PD, Zearing Park—
sports fields, pathway, play-grounds,
lake, fishing pier, shel-ter,
concession, restroom,
access road, toilets
Crawford County
Oblong, Oblong Park—
replace playground
Champaign County
Champaign County FPD—
trails, interpretive signs, shelter,
canoe access
Champaign PD, Scott Park—
renovate playground, splash
pad, basketball court, pathway,
lighting, picnic area, pavilion,
landscaping
Coles County
Mattoon, Roundhouse Multi-
Sport Complex—soccer fields,
paths, skate park
Cook County
Bartlett PD, Lambert Lane—
playground, shelter, tennis
court, basketball court, path, fit-ness
stations, dog park, arbore-tum,
native prairie landscaping
Burbank PD, Harr Park—ath-letic
field, playground, trail, fit-ness
stations, tennis court reno-vation,
basketball court, lighting,
shelter
Chicago, Bloomingdale Lin-ear
Trail Park—playground
Evanston, Foster Field—play-grounds,
tennis courts, basket-ball
court, pathways
Glenview PD, Community
Park West—ball fields, shelters,
dog park, bocce ball courts,
horseshoes, playground, paths
Hoffman Estates PD, Black
Bear Park—playground, basket-
NewsFront
Important 2008
wall calendar
changes
The June 14-15 Montreal
Canoe Weekend sched-uled
for Starved Rock State
Park has been canceled.
All interpretive programs
at Giant City State Park
have been discontinued.
A series of feature articles examine
the diverse careers within the
Department of Natural Resources.
This month, learn of the work of
Ecotoxicologist Beth Whetsell.
WeAre
DNR
As an ecotoxicologist, Beth
Whetsell delves daily into
assessing the effects chemicals
may have on the environment.
“Ecotoxicology is a combina-tion
of the studies of ecology and chem-istry,”
Whetsell explained. Countless
experiences sparked her interest in the
natural resource field, starting with grow-ing
up on a farm in Fulton County. An
internship with the Illinois Natural Histo-ry
Survey, Forbes Biological Station, trig-gered
her interest in both ecology and
chemistry. Other experiences included a
wren nesting ecology study while a biol-ogy
student at Illinois State University
and a DNR residency at Midewin Tall-grass
Prairie (former Joliet Army Arsenal).
“The more I delved into the pro-jects,
the more questions I had,” said
Whetsell. “Wanting answers to such
questions as ones surrounding the vital-ity
of nesting success drove me toward
pursuing a master’s degree in environ-mental
science.”
At the University of Illinois, Whetsell
examined the effects of agrichemicals
on resident and neotropical migratory
birds. While she couldn’t draw conclu-sions
that chemicals used in the Mid-west
were lethal, she found that
migrants contained potentially injurious
levels of chemicals banned in the Unit-ed
States—suggesting the birds were
picking up chemicals on their winter-ing
grounds.
Within the Office of Realty and Envi-ronmental
Planning’s Contaminant
Assessment Section, Whetsell primarily
protects the public’s interest through
the Natural Resource Damage Assess-ment
and Restoration process.
During a typical work day, Whetsell
determines what resources may be
impacted due to a release of oil or haz-ardous
substances, reviews literature on
hazardous substances and writes assess-ments.
In coordinating each project,
Whetsell communicates with Illinois
Environmental Protection Agency staff,
lawyers, chemists, biologists, land man-agers,
economists, corporations and
environmental activists.
Unfortunately, Whetsell’s work out-doors
often comes after an unexpected
release of oil or hazardous substance
and involves monitoring an area to doc-ument
how it is recovering, either natu-rally
or after a clean up or restoration
effort. Working with resource experts,
Whetsell may take water samples,
shock for fish, or survey for mussels or
other species.
“A lot of my time is spent trying to
tell the story of a particular incident
and the chemical’s fate once it comes
into the environment,” Whetsell said.
And because new chemicals are devel-oped
every day, she must remain vigi-lant
in her understanding of chemistry.
In Whetsell’s world, damage to the
environment may occur in the blink of
an eye, but reaching agreement on a
restoration plan can take years, possibly
even a decade, depending upon the
degree of contamination and injury to
natural resources. The ability to multi-task,
work with a variety of personali-ties
and above all else, to be patient, are
musts to improve degraded habitats.
“It is a tremendous accomplishment
when all parties—DNR, Illinois Environ-mental
Protection Agency, Attorney Gen-eral
and the party responsible—agree
upon how to compensate the public in a
way that is beneficial to the environment
and the local communities.”
For more information on the Natural
Resources Damage Assessment and
Restoration process visit dnr. state. il.
u.s/ orep/ contaminant_assessment.
Ecotoxicologist Beth Whetsell (above left and
below right) combines the sciences of ecology
and chemistry to understand the potential
impacts of toxins on the environment.
About 100 store managers from Jewel-Osco participated in an Earth Day event at McHenry Dam and
Moraine Hills State Park, working on cleaning up the Fox River shoreline, road cleanup and brush
removal. Jewel-Osco also donated an 800-pound Trex bench made of recycled plastic bags, which was
placed near the McHenry Dam. The Friends of Moraine Hills State Park and the site’s Native Gardener
Volunteers lent support to the projects.
ball court, shelter, fishing pier,
disc golf course, path, fitness sta-tions,
interpretive signs
Midlothian PD, Bremen
Heights Park—sports field, trail,
fitness stations, playground,
pavilion, security lighting
Morton Grove PD, Frank
Hren Park—soccer fields,
restroom, shelter, sports area,
path, fitness stations, native
landscaping, track and field
sprint area
Oak Park PD, Longfellow
Park—playground equipment,
water splash pad, paths, basket-ball
area, soccer field, restrooms,
landscaping, interpretive signs
Palos Heights, Walsh West-gate
Park—playground, shelter,
fitness stations, playfield, putting
green
DeKalb County
DeKalb County FPD, Afton
Forest Preserve—trails, picnic
area, habitat restoration
DeKalb PD, Devonaire Farms
Park—playground, basketball
court, shelter, path, landscaping
Sycamore Park District, Lar-son
Park—playground, shelter,
boardwalk, fishing pier, path,
learning pods, prairie restora-tion,
stream bank restoration
DuPage County
Bloomingdale PD, Lakeview
Park—playground area, shelter,
fishing pier, pathway, ball field
upgrade, native landscaping
Burr Ridge PD, Harvester
Park—eradicate invasive plants,
native landscaping, accessible
trail, floating docks, fishing pier,
footbridge, shelter, outdoor
amphitheater, interpretive signs
Clarendon Hills PD, Western
Avenue—playground, athletic
field, path
DuPage County FPD, Black-well
Forest Preserve—swimming
National big trees
In the 2008-2009 National Register of Big Trees, Illinois is recog-nized
as having six of the 733 national champion trees. Illinois
even stole the Ohio buckeye throne from Ohio.
Trees are nominated by public participation and verified by
state coordinators, and the list is updated every two years. Trees
receive points based on their height, circumference and 1⁄4 of
their crown spread. If two trees are within five points, they
become co-champions. Illinois’ record trees are as follows.
Broadleaf hawthorn–83 points, Morton Arboretum
Kansas hawthorn–62 points, Morton Arboretum
Ohio buckeye–266 points, Hamburger University, DuPage
Butternut–328 points, Henry County
Black cherry–319 points, Perry County
Shumard oak–452 points, Anna
American Forests’ goal is to make a healthier world with trees
by working with communities to restore and maintain forest
ecosystems. Information about all the champions and how to nom-inate
a new champ, along with fun trivia, instructions on measur-ing
a tree and more are available at www.americanforests. org.
