Nature's Storytellers

We need to talk. It’s going to be awkward, it’s a subject we’d all like to avoid, but it’s best for everyone if we just put it out there: ticks are all around you.

Between the Thanksgiving dinner prep and the holiday shopping spree, get outdoors with your family and friends to experience the physical, emotional and spiritual rewards of spending time in nature. Today an ever-growing body of scientific research finds that nature is good for the body, mind and spirit. Nature makes us healthier, sharper and even happier, too! 

When Willowbrook Wildlife Center site manager Sandy Fejt needs a break from caring for injured native wildlife at the center, she doesn’t have to look far. One of Sandy’s favorite spots at the Glen Ellyn forest preserve is the butterfly garden. She helped with the original design of the garden and loves to teach visitors the benefits of creating a garden out of native plants. Sandy plays a large part in the District’s mission to grow and maintain milkweed plants to provide habitat and food for the struggling monarch butterfly population. 

When ranger Sarah Rosenberg needs to reconnect with nature, she stops at Meacham Grove Forest Preserve in Bloomingdale. She especially loves the excellent hiking trails at the 255-acre preserve, which features woodland groves, meadows, a fishing lake, wetlands, the meandering Spring Brook Creek and the Meacham Grove Nature Preserve. 

The Forest Preserve Districts of DuPage and Will opened a 1.25-mile trail connecting Greene Valley Forest Preserve in Naperville to Whalon Lake Forest Preserve in Bolingbrook on June 1, 2018. Officials from the two forest preserve districts gathered for a ribbon-cutting at Whalon Lake, just where the trail extension meets up to the preserve’s looped trail.

Forest Preserve District of DuPage County officials celebrated the opening of the new two-lane entrance bridge at McDowell Grove Forest Preserve in Naperville at a May 29 ribbon-cutting ceremony at the preserve on Raymond Drive.

Visitors expect to encounter nature and native wildlife at DuPage forest preserves, but it’s a bonus to experience history firsthand as well. Fullersburg Woods Forest Preserve in Oak Brook does just that with its Graue Mill and Museum, located in the southern corner of the preserve. The historic waterwheel gristmill open for the 2018 season on April 17. It closes for the season in mid-November with its finale “Christmas at the Mill” holiday boutique.

DuPage forest preserves are a magical sight to behold after a freshly fallen snow. We know many of you can’t wait to get out there to see the magnificent beauty, but sometimes it’s hard to know what parking lots will be plowed first and what trails will be groomed first for cross-country skiing.

Strolling through a forest preserve is great; walking with a best friend through a forest preserve is the best. I have a few best friends, but when I want to walk alone but not all the way alone, I love to bring my six-year-old dog, Jacob.

Fall in DuPage County kicks off with the goldenrod bloom in September, and it’s the first sign that 90-degree days are coming to an end, in a predestined nod to the tipping planet.

DuPage County forest preserve trails are popular with all kinds of visitors, some on foot, some on wheels and others on horseback. They help people get closer to prairies, woodlands, wetlands, lakes and rivers and offer 145 miles of varied terrain, including crushed limestone (the most common), turf, asphalt, wood chips and back-area footpaths. Maps showing trails, restrooms, drinking water and alternative trailheads are available on our website forest preserve pages and at information kiosks at most forest preserves.