Cook County Land Acquisition Plan
Southeast Cook County, IL
Overview
In 2019, the Forest Preserves of Cook County engaged a project team led by the Conservation Fund to develop a strategic land acquisition plan for the
southeast Cook County region south of Chicago. The goal of this planning effort was to identify and prioritize potential land acquisition targets that will help the Forest Preserves achieve their goal of expanding the preserves to 90,000 acres of permanently protected land. The project team developed a community and data-driven process for identifying priority acquisition targets, which included a combination of community engagement activities (e.g., stakeholder meetings, site visits, focus groups, etc.), spatial suitability and optimization analysis, health impact assessment, iterative and collaborative mapping exercises, and more.
