Amid the hectic growth of commercial businesses and residential subdivisions popping up around the county, the DeKalb County Forest Preserve is working hard to make sure some land maintains its aesthetic form.

The entire philosophy behind the forest preserve is to preserve natural habitats from being destroyed by future developments through grants and donations. With more than a dozen preserved parks, the DeKalb County Forest Preserve has provided the county with attractions for residents and safe habitats for wildlife.

Superintendent Terry Hannan said during the past few years, he’s been able to maintain land that otherwise would have been taken over by housing and business developments.

Forest preserve employee Peggy Doty discussed a few methods that secure preservation of parks and land.

“Most importantly, lands are preserved through law,” Doty said. “They also are preserved when companies buy property to build their businesses. Say, when a Wal-mart or a Lowe’s is opened for example, they are required to purchase a section of wetlands from another site.”

Hannan said the county has its eyes set on acquiring a couple of new spaces of land.

“We did just acquire 300 acres along the Kishwaukee River that will adjoin with MacQueen Park,” Hannan said. “We also worked with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to purchase a little less than 600 acres on the south side of the Kishwaukee River. So we’ve been able to acquire somewhere near 1,000 acres of beautiful flood plains, spacious meadows and woodlands.”

Doty said vandalism is the biggest problem the forest preserve faces.

“We suffer vandalism constantly and it is frustrating,” she said. “We are not-for-profit so unless we receive special funding, we don’t have the resources to fix all these problems.”

The environmental well-being of the forest preserve has been the topic of encouraging discussions. One of the concerns within the county has been the contamination of PCBs within the Kishwaukee River. Hannan said no one would even know this was a problem with how much the river has improved over the past couple years.

“We are rated as Class B, which means our rivers are healthy,” Hannan said. “Some sections within the county received the highest Class A rating. We’ve had quite an increase with fish in the Kishwaukee River, which is a good indication the river is healthy.”

Doty cited the city as a helping hand in maintaining the health of the rivers and overall environment.

“The city has been doing a real good job with farmers to use buffers and through other methods of keeping our lands clean,” Doty said. “Soon there is a very good chance all our rivers will become Class A rivers.”

Hannan said having the best way to ensure that businesses and housing developments don’t overtake the land is to have a long-term preservation plan.

“We’d like to see the parks stay like it is and not change what is a good system of parks and forests,” Hannan said. “We try to make acquisitions of land that may not be available in 10 or 20 years.”