Herons, not condominiums, will be nesting on the southwest shore of the Lake Renwick Heron Rookery in Plainfield.
Friends of the Rookery, a Will County conservation group, has raised its share of money to acquire a 3.4-acre parcel adjacent to the lake from a developer who planned to build a condominium complex on the site.
But according to the group, which was formed out of concern that the housing development would threaten the bird sanctuary, additional funds are still needed. Otherwise, a third of the land might have to be sold off to finance converting the other two-thirds into a nature park.
The park would eventually become part of the 315-acre Renwick Heron Rookery Nature Preserve, the largest heron rookery in northeastern Illinois, located along U.S. Highway 30 just west of Interstate Highway 55 in Plainfield.
The fundraising campaign “is not over,” said Jack Heimerdinger, spokesman for the Friends of the Rookery.
“While our fundraising effort has been successful, it, unfortunately, has not provided enough money to reach our larger goal–keeping the entire tract intact.”
To date, the group has collected more than $60,000 for the project from contributions made by more than 750 area residents. But nearly $50,000 more is needed, according to Heimerdinger, to avoid having to sell about 1 1/2 acres of the site, including a house on the property, and to develop the remainder into a nature preserve and an area where birdwatchers can observe the herons nesting on an island in the middle of the lake.
“We have sufficient funding to create a 2-acre park,” Heimerdinger said. “We need money to cover the other acre.”
To buy the site from Amity Development Co. of Mokena, a condominium development firm, the group will add the money it has collected to a matching grant of $50,000 from the Copley Corp. and Foundation; a $150,000 grant from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources; and a pending $350,000 matching state grant applied for by the Will County Forest Preserve District and the Village of Plainfield.
Initially, the land will be acquired by the Corelands organization, a Chicago-based land conservation group, said Blondie Hewlett, co-chairperson of the Friends of the Rookery.
Corelands, which is expected to make the purchase by the end of the month, then will transfer the property to the Forest Preserve District when that agency receives the various state grants earmarked for the site, Hewlett said. The forest preserve will add the land to the Lake Renwick preserve.
To raise the additional funds, Friends of the Rookery proposes to hold a variety of additional fundraisers, including raffling off a restored 1971 Porsche E coupe sports car that was donated to the group. The raffle is scheduled to take place Sept. 2, and tickets can be purchased at several local Plainfield businesses or by writing to the Friends of the Rookery at P.O. Box 1, Plainfield, Ill., 60544.
No matter what size the new nature park eventually will be–either 2 acres or 3 1/4 acres–it will be dedicated to education and scientific observation, Heimerdinger said.
“The site, above the west shore of Lake Renwick, will be open yearlong and provide one of the very best locations to view the spectacular flocks of birds that migrate annually to the area,” Heimerdinger said.
The rookery is home to five rare species of herons, egrets and cormorants, including the endangered black-crowned night heron and the threatened great egret and double-crested cormorant.
