Walnut Woods to thrive under park district control
If you happen to be driving along north Wheeling Road in Prospect Heights, you might spot a small wooded area on the west side of the road near McDonald Creek.
Your instincts might lead you to pull into the small parking lot, take a seat on a nearby picnic table and scan the orderly arrangement of mature black walnut trees.
This peaceful grove is now known as Walnut Woods and belongs to the Prospect Heights Park District.
But for many years it belonged to Dr. Keith Wurtz, a surgeon who helped found Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights.
Wurtz bought the land in 1964 and planted the grove in the 1970s. In 2003, The Trust for Public Land, a nonprofit organization, acquired the 8-acre-plus forest, eventually conveying it to the Prospect Heights Park District, which dedicated the property this summer. It will be used for passive recreation and education.
Executive Director Kathy Nowicki said the park district had interest in the property because of the amount of open space and the possibility that it could be developed if the district didn't protect it as open space.
"From an environmental standpoint, it is important to maintain open space," she said. "There is quite a bit of open space that inhabits the acreage. It provides a unique site for the community."
Wurtz grew up on a farm in northern Wisconsin and wanted to be a farmer when he was young.
"I have been very fond of trees for many years," said Wurtz during a recent visit to Walnut Woods. He now lives in Luther Village in Arlington Heights.
Wurtz's daughter, Becky Wurtz, said the black walnuts were special genetically engineered trees from the forestry department at Purdue University. She said they were designed to survive in this climate and grow particularly straight and tall.
"My dad tended each tree individually," she said. "He knew every tree," pruning them and, if he didn't like the direction they were growing, and staking them.
She said her father would plant the nuts from the straightest and tallest trees to grow new trees. These plans were sometimes thwarted by the squirrels, which would take the nuts or replace them with less perfect specimens.
Another interesting aspect of the tree Keith Wurtz noted was the fact that it secretes a toxic substance called juglone which limits the growth of other competing trees.
The black walnuts weren't the only trees Wurtz planted. Becky Wurtz remembers her father planting evergreens, which were eventually used for Christmas trees.
She said Wurtz's grandchildren and even some of his nurses would cut down the evergreens for Christmas trees.
Today, though, it is the walnuts that dominate the landscape, stately black columns that stand as a testament to his dedication and tender care.
"These trees won't be mature for another 20 years, but that doesn't bother him," Becky Wurtz said. "He likes the idea of something that will grow and take a long time to mature and be here even after he is gone."