Land and Lakes Company, an environmental services company based in Park Ridge, enlisted public/private commitments to create bike and pedestrian paths, as well as habitat for an Illinois endangered species—the spotted turtle—that might otherwise be threatened by expanding mining and a proposed highway extension in Will County.

In the fall of 1994, Land and Lakes Company, Vulcan Materials Inc. (a national limestone quarry company), the Will County Forest Preserve District, and the Illinois Toll Highway Authority began working together when plans for the extension of Route 355 were announced at public hearings. The new highway would cut through the Keepataw Preserve—a forest preserve district project just east of Land and Lakes property—shading about nine acres under the approaches to a new bridge over the Des Plaines River.

In order to compensate the forest preserve district for the loss of the land, the state planned to condemn a 20-acre portion of the Lemont Quarry for forest preserve use. Amid protests against the loss of high-paying quarry mining jobs, the cost of condemning the active quarry versus alternative undeveloped sites, and the potential loss of a nearby source of limestone for the highway's construction—Land and Lakes, Vulcan and the forest preserve district worked out a solution to recommend to the highway authorities.

The result was a joint proposal to create a habitat area in the Keepataw Preserve to foster a population of the spotted turtle and provide for bike paths and pedestrian access along the north bank of the Des Plaines River. Under the proposal that was approved in December of 1995, Land and Lakes will donate permanent easements through its property for creation of the bike paths, and Vulcan will commit to landscape the borders of its operations to screen the bike paths.

Land and Lakes Company and Vulcan are now enlisting their hydrologist, ecological biologist, and civil engineering staffs to provide a habitat for the rare turtle inside the nearby areas of the Keepataw Preserve. Biologists are planning to construct special areas of moist grasses and plants in an abandoned flagstone pit located in the Keepataw Preserve. The old shallow pit, about 3-feet deep and 200-feet across, is a remnant of old mining by pick axe and mule in the 1800s. With new plant- ings and enhanced water flows provided by newly constructed ditches installed by Vulcan, the abandoned pit can provide an ideal habitat for the endangered turtle.

The forest preserve district's biologists, experienced in tracking and monitoring turtle populations in Will County, will introduce the turtles to the habitat and its biologists will monitor the turtle population.

The spotted turtle habitat is well on its way to benefiting not only the Will County area but the entire state of Illinois. This public/private partnership will help preserve and enhance public forest preserve land, save high-paying quarry mining jobs, provide for a safe and scenic bike and pedestrian path, and help preserve a state endangered species—the spotted turtle.

Preserving public land, and even creating additional economic and environmental benefits, is something that more private companies and public entities can generate for Illinois. It is the responsibility of public agencies to keep informed of its corporate neighbors' activities, just as it is the private sector's duty to seek out ways to benefit the public.

Mary Margaret Cowhey is the director of finance and development for Land and Lakes Company in Park Ridge, Illinois. Spotted turtle illustration provided courtesy of artist Olin Harris of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

46 * Illinois Parks & Recreation * May/June 1996