Quiet but fierce Douglas Mains’ low-key perseverance helped save Danada from developers

Ÿ Editor’s Note: The following article originally ran on June 20, 2007, as part of the Daily Herald’s series about the 10 most influential environmentalists in DuPage County history

It’s hard to imagine DuPage County without the pastoral presence of Danada Forest Preserve.

Spanning 783 acres, it’s a bucolic retreat, just a stone’s throw from the bustling intersection of Butterfield and Naperville roads. But it could have been something much different without Douglas Mains, the man who fought quietly but fiercely to save that quintessential property, and who decades later continues to play a significant role in helping the forest preserve district acquire land.

“I can’t believe how people would get along without the forest preserves,” Mains said. “I think it’s very important for our county.”

That wasn’t always the dominant thinking in the 1970s, however, when the former Wheaton estate and farm of horse lovers Dan and Ada Rice was slated for retail development.

Before that could happen, though, local environmentalists created Friends of Danada, a group headed by Mains, to lead the campaign to spare the site from the cement mixer.

Low-key perseverance was the hallmark of his success, longtime acquaintances of the retired West Chicago orthopedic surgeon say.

Mains “wasn’t out there pounding his chest,” said Brook McDonald, president of The Conservation Foundation. “Doug has a lot of class. Rather than scream and yell, he’d have a cup of coffee with the mayor.”

After months of consistent lobbying, the DuPage County Forest Preserve District finally bought Danada in 1980.

Now it’s home to a model farm, formal gardens, trails, an equestrian center and a wild mustang rescue program. None of that would have been possible without the dedication of Mains and his allies.

That quiet but determined passion for preservation has earned Mains a prominent spot among the most influential environmentalists in DuPage County history.

A love of horses

Doug Mains has a soft spot for horses that started in his boyhood, and so, perhaps, it’s not a surprise he took an interest in Danada.

Now 72, he grew up in Aurora and Quincy and treasures memories of fishing trips and horseback riding. In a move that rivals the best of Tom Sawyer, he once purchased a horse for himself while his parents were out of town.

“They were surprised but they said it was OK,” Mains remembered, chuckling.

He settled in DuPage County in the 1970s after graduating from medical school in Chicago with a specialty in orthopedics. He established the OAD Orthopedics center in 1981.

David Chang, the first doctor to join the practice in 1986, credits Mains with being one of the area’s pioneers in hip replacement surgery. Unlike some specialists who are “quick and brusque,” Chang said Mains “was one of the kindest surgeons I’ve ever met.”

Among his patients was H.C. “Chuck” Johnson, who served as executive director of the DuPage Forest Preserve District from 1962 to 1994.

“He has great depth to him,” Johnson said, “intellectual depth and feeling about God’s creation.”

Johnson introduced Mains to Brooks McCormick, a towering figure in the environmental history of DuPage and founder of The Conservation Foundation in 1972.

“For many years, he was Brooks McCormick and I was Doug,” Mains recalled.

By 1988, McCormick was looking for someone to take over the reins of the nature conservancy organization.

Mains’ work during the Danada campaign so impressed McCormick that “he hand-picked Doug to replace him on the Conservation Foundation,” McDonald said.

“He called me over one day and said, ‘Doug, I want you to take it over,’ “ Mains remembered. “I said I thought I could.”

The foundation

Mains served as the foundation’s board chairman until 1994 and still is a trustee. Under his tenure, the group burgeoned from a behind-the-scenes organization to a force with more than 500 paid individual and corporate members.

His fingerprints are all over a series of environmental milestones in the county.

He worked for passage of open space referendums in 1997 and 2006, advocated for a regional bicycle trail and pushed to save the Lenore McDonald farm in Naperville. The farm now houses the foundation’s headquarters.

In 1997, Mains convinced board members to expand the foundation’s territory into Kendall, Will and Kane counties. The group already has successfully intervened in several land-acquisition votes in those counties and its influence is growing.

Closer to home, his personal intervention is credited with securing the newest jewel in the forest preserve’s crown — the St. James Farm property.

Mains’ friendship with McCormick allowed him to act as intermediary in the purchase of the 590-acre site along Butterfield Road near Winfield for $43 million.

“Doug was instrumental in negotiating a very good purchase price,” said Gwen Henry, county treasurer and a former forest preserve commissioner. “Without him, we would not have had the input to be able to acquire St. James Farm.”

The farm, which was owned by McCormick, includes woodlands, wetlands and prairie remnants that will be restored over time.

“He’s a champion of the environment,” forest preserve President Dewey Pierotti said. “And he doesn’t only do it through words, he does it through actions.”

Personal style

Mains and his wife, Fran, who have two daughters, took a personal interest in the growth of open space recently, agreeing to sell their 20-acre property and house to the district. The couple is donating most of the purchase price back to the forest preserve.

The site is near Timber Ridge Forest Preserve, which is southeast of Route 59 and North Avenue. It contains prairie gardens Mains has worked on for years, two lakes, a woodlands and wildlife. Once they leave, the couple’s residence will be converted to a nature education center focused on senior citizens.

You’d think his home would count as Mains’ favorite preserve, but he insists it’s too hard for him to chose which natural area he loves most.

“I love going around and looking,” he said.

While many think of Mains as a naturalist or a doctor, John Cather knows him as a patron of the arts and a caring son.

Cather, now president of Friends of Danada, is a painter involved with the DuPage Art League. For fun, he painted a picture of the old White Castle fast-food joint in Lombard.

Mains purchased it for his father, who loved White Castle burgers.

Cather first met Mains in the early 1980s, just after Danada was rescued from the bulldozers.

“He’s dedicated to the environment,” Cather said. “He’s sacrificed a lot of time and energy.”

Pierotti recalled asking Mains to help lobby against a massive expansion of Munger Road through Pratt’s Wayne Woods in northwest DuPage.

Mains stepped up and helped squelch the plan.

“Without his personal involvement,” Pierotti said, “there would be a four-lane highway going through Pratt’s Wayne Woods and the people of DuPage County would not be the owners of St. James Farm.”