Partnership Award
McHenry County Community Research Forest –
The opportunity to preserve a nearly 100 acre stand of oaks in McHenry County is rare and the potential
to study their ecosystem components in such a large block equally unusual.
However, as of July 2013, one of these stands is now protected and will be known in perpetuity as The
McHenry Community Research Forest. This project was made possible through a creative partnership
forged between The McHenry County Conservation District, The Land Conservancy of McHenry County,
a private landowner, and a grant from Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation.
The Community Research Forest located in unincorporated Harvard, IL, is a complex array of woodland
natural communities and is known as the first of its kind in the area. Totaling approximately 93 acres
through the assemblage of three parcels. Two of the parcels (about 53 acres) were purchased outright
by the District funded in large part by a grant from the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation. A 40
acre conservation easement donated by a private landowner was orchestrated by The Land Conservancy
of McHenry County (TLC).
McHenry County Community Research Forest is a living laboratory, dominated by 200-300 year old
white, red, black, scarlet and bur oak trees, that will provide researchers, private landowners, students,
stewards, artists and others a place to dedicate their long-term studies on the future of McHenry
County’s most ancient and venerable natural community. The Community Research Forest is
expected to draw attention from future research grant projects, universities and other partners.
Unlike conventional grant projects which attempt to complete ecological restoration work as quickly as
feasible, the Community Research Forest will take a different approach to accomplishing restoration
goals. The site will be divided into small management units with different treatments utilized to
accomplish restoration goals over an extended period of time. The results will be carefully measured
and quantified and then provided to the conservation community as a whole to further the region's
understanding of oak ecosystems at the private and public level of ownership.
The District’s landmark Oak Study completed in 2005, revealed 82% of the county’s oak ecosystems
(woodland, savanna and barrens) had disappeared since 1837. Only 5.4% or 157 stands remaining
contained 25 or more acres of contiguous oak cover and only eight blocks featured 100 or more. In the
past eight years, another several hundred acres of oaks have been lost.
While the study produced sobering information related to oak ecosystems in the county, it also acted
as a catalyst for action. TLC initiated Project Quercus, a comprehensive partnership between the public,
private and non-government organization to address the future of oaks within the county. Project
Quercus also initiated the Oak Keepers volunteer outreach program to assess oaks on private holdings.
Both programs have served to generate enormous public interest and awareness among oak
stakeholders concerning the best management practices for remaining oak remnants and how to
expand oak acreage. The study also served as the inspiration for mapping oak ecosystems across the
Chicago Wilderness region with funding from the USDA Forest Service.
With this groundswell, the creation of the McHenry County Community Research Forest was the next
logical step in the preservation efforts underway in the county directed at oak ecosystems.
To look upon the landscape and see its potential; to determine what techniques are needed to restore it
to its most optimal health; to understand the value of protecting large stands of oaks; and to realize the
far reaching effects a decision will have on the future survival of oak woodlands in the region – these are
the visionary components that prompted the collaboration to preserve approximately 100 acres of oak
woodland that will serve as an area dedicated to the study and promotion of oak woodland
management for generations to come.
Integration into and use of the site by programs of the District and TLC will begin as early as the fall of
2013. The site will become an outdoor classroom available for TLC’s Oak Keepers and Project Quercus
programs and as a field site for the District’s use in the People and Nature Program. It is envisioned to be
accessible to the public on a regular basis and be a readily available site for ongoing educational
programs and yearly hands-on seminars conducted in the field.
This forged partnership in creating the McHenry County Community Research Forest has provided a
permanent anchor for multiple conservation efforts and cement already close working partnerships
between the members of the conservation community.