DeKalb Times

DeKalb County Forest Preserve has received a grant from the DeKalb County Community Foundation to construct a field station classroom at Russell Woods Forest Preserve.

The $5,000 grant was part of over $125,000 the foundation’s board of directors awarded 25 local organizations and nonprofits in the Spring 2020 Community Needs Grants, according to the foundation’s website.

Located at 11750 State Route 72 in Genoa, Russell Woods Forest Preserve has 126 acres and was established as a forest preserve in 1942, according to its website.

Among the forest preserve’s facilities is the Natural Resources Education Center that hosts University of Illinois Extension Outdoor Education Programs. The programs are offered on-site and hosts classroom visits for 5,000 children and adults each year. Located on the Kishwaukee River, the preserve’s resource center is DeKalb County’s sole nature center, according to the county website.

The new field station will incorporate a now-closed door of the education center, and will have three screened sides and a concrete floor, according to Northern Public Radio.

Children typically in summer camp at the center face environmental challenges, Peggy Doty told Northern Public Radio. Doty is an educator with University of Illinois Extension who wrote the grant proposal for Russell Woods Forest Preserve.

“In the summer, we have a lot of mosquitoes,” Doty told Northern Public Radio. “We're right on the river, and I get children who come to summer camp, and we get annihilated sometimes. We needed an open air space where we could feel like we are a part of nature and can continue to do our activities and studies without putting our children at risk for West Nile and the different things that could come from that.”

Community Needs Grants support several interest areas -- Environment & Animal Welfare; Education; Community Development; Health & Human Services; and Arts and Culture, according to the DeKalb County Community Foundation’s website.