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on Virgil DevelopmentNews
on Virgil DevelopmentAuroa Beacon-News
July 30, 2006
By Steve Lord
Staff Writer
GENEVA — The Kane County Forest Preserve District has week announced its largest individual land purchase ever.
The district closed on 1,117 acres in Virgil Township, to be known as
the Virgil Forest Preserve. Forest Preserve officials did not
immediately say what the district paid for the land.
This is the first forest preserve in Virgil Township, a targeted area
for the district's Land Acquisition Committee. Every township in
Kane County now includes Forest Preserve District of Kane County
property.
The Virgil acquisition was a combination of purchases made from seven
different land owners with adjoining properties. The new Virgil
Forest Preserve becomes the second-largest property in the District.
Drew Ullberg, district director of Natural Resources, said the district
intends to incorporate woodlands and prairie in the preserve.
"Restoring meandering streams shown to be present on maps from
the 1830s will also be targeted," he said.
The preserve will be worked into the district's Master Plan, on which
officials currently are working. It also is likely to get its own
development plan, similar to what the district has done with preserves
like Aurora West in Aurora and Sugar Grove townships and Dick Young in
Batavia Township.