Work Relief Labor in the Cook County Forest Preserves, 1931–1942

Vena, Natalie Bump

doi:10.2307/j.ctv1595nc9.18

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“…In restoring prairies, and later other ecosystems, volunteer stewards revived the original vision for the district that would become the Cook County forest preserves. In the early twentieth century, the City Council of Chicago feared their growing industrial metropolis lacked sufficient recreational space, and hired architect Dwight Perkins to compile a report for an enlarged park system in 1903 (see Vena, 2020; 2021; Cronon, 1991 for discussion of the Chicago region's dramatic transformation during the nineteenth century). While Perkins focused on expanding the number of playgrounds and small parks in already populated areas, he asked landscape architect Jens Jensen to suggest properties for an “outer belt park” on the predominantly agricultural, and otherwise undeveloped, outskirts of the city.…”

Section: Histories Of Forestation and Prairie Restorationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Tree planting accelerated with the availability of relief labor during the New Deal, as district staff led workers in planting hundreds of thousands of shrubs and tree seedlings by hand. To protect these plantations, relief laborers fought wildfires and constructed firebreaks throughout the forest preserves, dramatically altering the region's fire-dependent ecosystems (Vena, 2020). After World War II, district leaders continued to prioritize forests and asserted in 1956, “The forest is most important, first, last, and always” (FPDCC).…”

Section: Histories Of Forestation and Prairie Restorationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Scientific expertise and volunteer power in the Cook County forest preserves

Vena

2022

Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space

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Through a historical case study, this paper explores the political potential of volunteerism in urban natural resources management. As governments continue to rely on unpaid labor to perform essential services, volunteerism has proliferated in urban protected lands during the neoliberal era. It is therefore worthwhile to study the power that volunteers may wield at their service sites, alongside the scholarly attention already paid to the inefficacy and the inadequacy of volunteer labor. By drawing on science and technology studies literature, especially concerning the role of citizen science in activist movements, this article analyzes how volunteer stewards influenced natural resources policy in the Forest Preserve District of Cook County. A local agency, the district is responsible for nearly 70,000 acres in the county that encompasses Chicago, IL. For most of the twentieth century, forestation constituted the district's official land management policy, as leaders sought to match its ecologically diverse holdings to the agency's name. In the late 1970s, volunteers won permission from the district to begin restoring prairies in the forest preserves. Working autonomously, volunteer stewards cultivated expert credibility in the science of ecological restoration. Over several decades, they drew on their scientific authority to convince forest preserve leaders to adopt ecological restoration as the district's primary land management policy, a process culminating in the early twenty-first century. The paper also explores the fragility of volunteer authority rooted in scientific expertise, by tracking how an anti-restoration movement and, later, forest preserve staff members successfully undercut volunteer expertise in ecological restoration.

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Section: Histories Of Forestation and Prairie Restorationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Histories Of Forestation and Prairie Restorationmentioning

confidence: 99%