Chicago -- A guide to what's outside

Information on the Cook County Forest Preserves and other outdoor stuff around Chicago.

The Cook County Forest Preserve District (CCFPD) controls over 68,000 acres, or over 10% of the land area of Cook County. As of June, 2002, the CCFPD finally has its own web site: http://www.fpdcc.com. The new official site contains handy items like up-to-date picnic permit information and detailed picnic grove maps.

Our unofficial CCFPD site will go away some day, but for the time being it'll stay right where it is, gradually getting updated with pointers to the official site.

The Unofficial Cook County Forest Preserve District Page

Your unofficial source for maps and info, including:

General Information
Picnic Maps
Nature Centers
Mini Trail Maps
Special Destinations
Other People's Pages

Outside of the forest preserves, here are some links to the websites of many park districts and some other possibly useful information.

What's new	All the newest maps and info.
Butterfly Gardening	Tips for attracting butterflies to your garden.
Skokie Lagoons' Mysterious Island	A side-by-side map comparison.
Picnic Permits	...for the Cook County Forest Preserves.
Northern Illinois Forest Preserves	Links to forest preserve district web sites.
Northern Illinois Park Districts	Links to park district web sites.
Water Resources	The unnatural history of Chicago waterways.
Critters	An essay on our furry friends.
Online Maps	Links to assorted Chicago and Illinois maps.
Statement of Purpose	Why are these pages here?
References	Paper sources for these dubious assertions.

And then there's "Miscellaneous":

Palau	Pictures from my 1997 trip.
Hammond Chord Organ	Some info about this vintage electronic instrument.
Chicago Air and Water Show	Some snaps from the 1997 edition.

Despite a reputation as a flat polluted rust belt city with a terrible climate, Chicago actually lives up to its motto "Urbs in Horto" (City in a Garden) in many ways. Although Chicago's natural setting has often been regarded as a nuisance to be overcome through engineering, there have always been at least a few people who appreciated the land as it was.

Chicago and surrounding Cook County have managed to keep a relatively large amount of open land. The Cook County Forest Preserve District alone accounts for about 11% of the county's land mass -- roughly 68,000 acres. Chicago also has its own Park District, as do most of the suburbs.

Although the parks and forest preserves contain many concrete-based forms of amusement, there still a lot of nature out there. (See the Critters page for some non-plant examples.) These pages are a non-commercial attempt to share information about these open spaces and the issues affecting them. (See the full statement of purpose for these pages.)

Although Chicago isn't located directly on the ocean or even a major river, it's still a town with many bridges, barges, and boats. See the Water Resources page, which is a first attempt at adding some actual content....

Speaking of water, take a peek at some scuba snaps from Palau, on the other side of the international date line, in the North Pacific (but just barely).

It is outdoors, it does have to do with air and water, and it is a big form of recreation for many, but it's not really green.... A few snaps from the preview day of the 1997 Air and Water Show.

For those who prefer paper, here are a few non-electronic references that have been useful so far...not that it really shows yet.

For no particular reason, this page has been visited a great many times, but sadly, the counter has been busted since RCN shut down the old Enteract servers.