“Let us leave a splendid legacy for our children. Let us turn to them and say: ‘This you inherit; guard it well, for it is far more precious than money, and once destroyed, nature’s beauty cannot be repurchased at any price.”
Ansel Adams
Americans have always had a love of open land. It is an important part of our nation’s history and our heritage in the Fox Valley. The retreating glaciers left us with vast expanses of rolling hills and fertile fields. Today much of that very land that we love is at risk of being lost to development forever. We must act now to save it.

Fox Valley Land Foundation was founded in 1992, as a private not-for-profit organization, to protect open land. The Foundation works with private landowners, communities and developers to protect important open spaces and natural areas around Kane County. It is a part of a national land conservation movement known as the Land Trust Alliance, a group of 1,200 regional land trusts that has conserved more than 6.2 million acres of private land in the United States.

Protecting Land for Future Generations
Our communities are stronger, healthier and more beautiful when we conserve natural areas and open lands because they:

•Preserve beautiful landscapes and vistas.
•Shelter native plants and animals.
•Protect surface and ground water.
•Retain storage for storm water.
•Provide people with the opportunity to interact with nature.

The beauty of the Fox River Valley is one of the reasons our area is experiencing some of the most dynamic urban growth in the state of Illinois. However, as the area continues to develop, there is a need to protect natural areas. Citizens are willing to pay increased property taxes so that government agencies such as forest preserve districts, townships and park districts can purchase land for open space. In spite of this, much of the land that needs protection will not be bought by public agencies. Kane County needs a land trust that collaborates with public and private interests to ensure that important land resources are protected. Fox Valley Land Foundation is the land trust whose focus is on Kane County.

The Foundation works with private landowners to help ensure that their family lands are preserved forever – in the condition they chose—whether a field of wildflowers, a corner woodlot or a pristine wetland. Landowners can guarantee that the land they love will never be subdivided or developed. They can also realize tax benefits through the use of conservation easements, bargain sales, or outright gifts of land.

Millions of acres across the United States have been protected through conservation easements, a legal agreement between a landowner and an organization like the Fox Valley Land Foundation which protects a property’s natural values permanently. Each conservation easement is a unique document that reflects the values that the individual landowner wishes to preserve. The role of the Foundation is to ensure that those values are preserved forever. This is done through annual monitoring and acareful documentation process to ensure that all future landowners honor the values described in the conservation easement.
"Let us leave a splendid legacy for our children."
Fox Valley Land Foundation currently holds six easements from Carpentersville in northern Kane County to Plano in Kendall County. Three easements were donated by private land owners and three resulted from working with developers to save natural areas within subdivisions. The Foundation has also bought parcels of land, protected them with easements, and then donated the property to a government agency such as a city park or county forest preserve district.

In 1998, Fox Valley Land Foundation obtained $800,000 to preserve Sleepy Hollow Ravine near I-90 and Randall Road in Elgin. Under the original development plan, this 70-foot deep ravine was destined to become a detention pond, which would have contaminated the creek and killed the rare native wildflowers growing there. Instead, the ravine has been preserved, and a trail now leads to a pavilion at the edge of the ravine. Visitors, including workers from the adjoining office park, can enjoy this beautiful natural area. After acquiring and protecting the ravine through a conservation easement, it was dedicated as an Illinois Nature Preserve and deeded to the Forest Preserve District of Kane County. The Foundation continues to manage the site for the Forest Preserve District.

Providing Stewardship for the Land

The challenge is not only to save lands, but also to preserve the biological communities they sustain. The condition of our natural areas is in decline due to the introduction of exotic species and the lack of fire for natural growth management. For example, several species of native oaks do not germinate in the wild because their sprouting acorns cannot get enough sun through thick under-story stands of European buckthorn. In other instances, garlic mustard and purple loosestrife crowd out beautiful native wildflowers. Nature needs a helping hand to ensure its health and vitality

Fox Valley Land Foundation manages its own easements, as well as other high-quality areas such as native railroad prairies. Each year more than 50 volunteers cut and burn buckthorn, pull and herbicide invasive plants, and conduct controlled burns. The Foundation also uses professionals who can restore large high-quality natural areas. For this purpose, the Foundation seeks grants and funding through various sources. To date, more than $2 million in restoration work has been done on protected natural lands such as Raceway Woods, Trout Park Nature Preserve, Bluff Spring Fen Nature Preserve, and Willow Marsh at Moraine Hills State Park..

Collaborating to Create Awareness

Protecting natural lands requires gaining the public’s support and understanding. Every day, landowners, public officials and developers make decisions that affect our land. During the development process, Fox Valley Land Foundation works with developers and public officials to protect open space and natural areas. The Foundation also offers advice to owners who need help managing or restoring their land.

Fox Valley Land Foundation is also committed to education. It sponsors the Student Stewardship Program to train stewards of the land for the future. Each year, approximately 600 sixth-grade students in northern Kane County learn by doing restoration work on publicly owned natural areas.

Building Capacity for the Future

Given the pace of development, this is a critical time for the future of open lands and natural areas in Kane County. Landowners, developers and schools are contacting Fox Valley Land Foundation with their concerns about areas that need protection or restoration. However, the urgent need to preserve land far exceeds the Foundation’s current capacity to respond effectively. Fox Valley Land Foundation has shown that it can collaborate with others to protect land. Now it seeks a broader base of financial support so that it can protect and steward more land.

The next five years are crucial to the landscape of Kane County. You can play a major role by making as generous a gift as possible, thereby helping to "...leave a splendid legacy for our children."

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