Comments on: Guest Column: Cutting of mature pines in Roland Olson Forest Preserve destructive

By: John Sill

John Sill — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:43:18 +0000

I just heard about this today from my parents. My father and aunts and uncle grew up on the farm that became Roland Olson park. The pines there are not native. My grandfather planted those pines in the 1950’s. The reason they were planted was the “native state” of the land was sand that blew around and he wanted to stabilize the soil. Despite their not being native, these trees have been around for nearly 60 years and are most certainly older than any of the people making the decision to cut them down. What a waste to cut down a beautiful, well established forest.

By: Josh Price

Josh Price — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:55:14 +0000

While it is true that Native Americans did use fire to control their environment, it would be disingenuous to say they caused all fires in pre-settlement days. Many of these fires were caused by lightning.

By: Gloria Maloney

Gloria Maloney — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 14:31:54 +0000

There were trees at least 3 feet diameter. There were some large trees in the area of the old farm house foundation.

This morning it looks like many trees at the edge of where they knocked down trees with the earth mover are falling down. Driving over tree roots with heavy equipment will kill them. Maybe the fire killed them.

The fire nearly killed a large, beautiful Austrian Pine. Still can’t tell if it will live or not.

By: Carolyn Saindon

Carolyn Saindon — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 23:54:34 +0000

This is NOT restoration…this is LUMBERING.

By: nobama4me

nobama4me — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 20:16:07 +0000

I hiked in Kieselburg Forest Preserve many times. I doubt there was any tree with a 5-6 foot diameter trunk. Maybe circumference that big.

By: VeryModest

VeryModest — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 03:43:02 +0000

Someone is making a tidy little penny off this. Which forest preserve is next on the hit list?

By: Keith Blackwell

Keith Blackwell — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 01:24:15 +0000

I live next to Olson Forest “Preserve”. It sickens me to see what they have done. What “brain trust” decided that cutting down the forest, preserves it? These preserves are the property of the taxpayers…the “powers that be” think that ‘they’ own them and pretend to know what was ‘native’ over 200 years ago. Time to replace this bunch of out of touch “professional public servants”.

By: Georgine Arena

Georgine Arena — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:08:20 +0000

Great article! They need to stop “Prairie Restoring” until they can answer the taxpayer’s questions. See what is happening at one of their current restoration projects on facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Roland-Olson-Forest-Preserve-Community-Opinions/243136995759862

By: Dan Weston

Dan Weston — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:17:13 +0000

Excellent article. It makes sense to me that a piece of land in its natural state is a piece of land that is left undisturbed.