A new shine on DuPage preserves

I have ridden my bike for years around the DuPage County forest preserves and am familiar with any of them that have bikeable trails of any sort.

Since Dan Hebreard took over the leadership of the forest preserve I'm amazed at the numbers of improvements I see at almost every turn. One of the biggest projects in progress in every preserve I've been in is the mowing of the invasive undergrowth, most of which has been brought in by European immigration and is not natural to the Illinois ecosystem. Our woods are looking more and more like the beautiful woods that covered this area 200 years ago. You can actually see the tree trunks now ... with space between them!

But the preserves are bustling with other activity as well, from new trails and river restoration at Blackwell, to a new driveway access at Greene Valley to shelter improvements at Herrick to new trails at St. James Farm to connector trails at Pratt's Wayne Woods, and on and on.

There just seems to be a new, positive spirit at the forest preserve and I wanted to recognize it publicly.

Bob Graham

Naperville