Trail Talk

I just got a copy of Trail Talk, a nifty little brochure put out by the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County. It will fit in your top pocket, but gives quite a bit of info as to what is in the preserves and various statistics that you might want to know. For instance, last year there were about 3.1 million visitors to our preserves. That only comes from a car count, so if you are riding your bike to the preserves, or are lucky enough to be able to walk to one, then your were not counted.

The District has 310 full-time employees and 45 part-timers. We had 3436 volunteers contribute some 79,000+ hours of there time to doing various things around the District. That equates to over $1 million of benefits to every citizen of DuPage County. We have 60 named preserves, with a few additional parcels that are generally referred to by the name of the nearest preserve. 2 of our preserves are dedicated Illinois Nature Preserves. We have 3 golf courses, 5 youth campgrounds, 1 youth cabin, 1 family campground, 4 model aircraft fields, 1 model boat area, 7 off-leash dog areas, we run 5 education facilities, have 2 more run by outside groups, and quite a bit more. It even has tax information.

Who woulda guessed that we have just under 400 miles of property boundaries. Or that we have 67 parking lots. Or 1450 picnic tables. Or...