Cook County Forest Preserves
Seal of FPDCC
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| Formation | 1914 |
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| Type | Governmental organization |
| Headquarters | River Forest, Illinois |
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Region served
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Cook County |
| Website | http://fpdcc.com |
The Forest Preserve District of Cook County is a governmental commission in Cook County, Illinois, that owns and manages the Cook County Forest Preserves. The preserves are a network of open spaces, containing forest, prairie, wetland, streams, and lakes, that are mostly set aside as natural areas. Cook County contains Chicago, and is the center of a densely populated urban metropolitan area in northeastern Illinois. The Forest Preserves encompass approximately 68,000 acres (275 km²) of open space within the urban surroundings of Chicago. It contains facilities for recreation, as well as a zoo and a botanic garden.
Most often being left more in their natural state, the Forest Preserves have a different purpose than urban parks; also they generally do not contain organized recreational facilities such as tennis courts or softball diamonds. They do contain hiking, bicycling, and riding trails, as well as facilities for nature and group activities, and they are heavily used for picnicking. They are administered by the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, a special taxation district that crosses municipal boundaries. Their headquarters are located in River Forest near Harlem Avenue and Lake Street.
While the Forest Preserve District is a unit of government and municipal corporation legally separate and distinct from Cook County and the latter's board of commissioners, the county board's president, commissioners and clerk hold the same offices ex officio concurrently on the Forest Preserve District Board of Commissioners.
In 1905, at the instigation of the Cook County Board of Commissioners and private nature groups, Illinois adopted a forest preserve act but because of defects in the law, it was declared inoperable. The Forest Preserve District Association was formed in 1911 and a new state law was adopted, however, the courts declared the 1911 law unconstitutional. Finally in 1913, the State adopted a Forest Preserve Act that survived legal challenge. The 1913 law allowed a county board:
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