Buffalo Park campsites likely to be relocated to Wolff

Camping is likely finished at the Buffalo Park campground in Dundee Township.

The Kane County Forest Preserve District board executive committee recommended closing the camping area at the park on Friday.

The flooding last August hit the campsite hard, closing it for the season, said Monica Meyers, forest preserve executive director.

Restoring it would be costly and it would likely flood again, she said.

To make up for the lost spaces, the district will expand the campgrounds at the Paul Wolff Forest Preserve in Elgin.

Spaces for recreational vehicles will increase from 48 to 98 and tent camping sites without utilities will increase from 18 to 20.

That should take care of the needed camping spaces for at least 10 years, Meyers said.

Those additions, plus an equestrian campsite and stable, picnic area and restroom will cost $400,000.

The area in Buffalo Park will now be used primarily as a fishing and picnic area, Meyers said.

The next issue concerning campgrounds for the district is to plan for a camping area in the southern part of the county, said Forest Preserve board President John Hoscheit.

There has not been a campsite there since the Bliss Woods campground in Sugar Grove Township was closed in 2004.

"I hate to see us close down another one," said county board member Mike Kenyon, a South Elgin Republican. "But it makes sense for us not to try and fight Mother Nature."

The full forest preserve district board is scheduled to vote on the issue Tuesday.