KANE COUNTY
Forest district plans controlled burns
More than 1,400 acres of invasive brush in Kane County forest preserves are the target of more than a dozen controlled burns planned for later this fall.
The exact schedule of the burns has not been set.
“It’s all weather-dependent,” Drew Ullberg, the forest preserve district’s director of natural resources, said Thursday.
Ullberg said this season’s burn will not occur until after the area experiences “a couple of killer frosts,” which might take a few more weeks. Burns are typically conducted in spring and fall.
Wind conditions, moisture content and relative humidity are among the factors used to determine whether a controlled burn is safe to initiate, he said.
“We make a concerted effort to notify all the [surrounding] neighbors within two weeks of a burn,” Ullberg said.
The district has 1,439 acres in 14 preserves on the list to be burned.
Burning is still one of the most valuable restoration tools available to the forest district for reclaiming native plant communities, encouraging prairies, woods and wetlands to flourish, and for controlling invasive brush in natural as well as re-created habitats, Ullberg said.
All but four of the burns are planned for a north-south swath of central Kane County from Randall Road on the east to Illinois Highway 47 on the west and running from roughly Freeman Road on the north to Illinois Highway 56 on the south. Parts of the Freeman, Dick Young, Bliss Woods, Meissner-Corron, Muirhead Springs, Hannaford Woods, Mill Creek-Wenmoth, Burnidge, Pingree Grove and Aurora West Forest Preserves are scheduled to be burned.
Also on the list are the Burlington and Big Rock Forest Preserves in west and southwest Kane and Fox River Shores and Helm Woods Forest Preserves in the far northeastern corner of the county.
The largest of the 14 burns is scheduled for Hannaford Woods, near Sugar Grove, where 150 acres of prairie restoration and 56 acres of woodlands are targeted.
William Presecky
NAPERVILLE
Buses to aid Pace commuters
Naperville Pace riders will get short-term help from the city if the transit agency is forced to implement service cuts because of lack of state funding.
City Manager Peter Burchard said tentative contracts for temporary buses are in place so the 770 commuters who use Pace to reach Naperville’s Metra stations will have a public transportation option. Pace has informed the city it will stop the 17 feeder routes that serve the train stations as of Nov. 4 if the state does not approve additional funding.
Any bus service the city will provide will only last for a week or two. Officials said the city cannot afford to take over funding of Pace on a regular basis. They are urging residents to contact their state legislators and pressure them to find a long-term funding solution.
Greg Canfield
