Welcome to Community Research Forest
The 93-acre Community Research Forest offers visitors a one-mile looped nature trail along relatively level ground with gentle slopes that crosses a couple of intermittent streams with stepping stones, making for an easy, single-file hike. There is also a bench overlooking a small pond along the way. There’s a small three car gravel lot. Walk around the gates to access the trails. Cell phone service is spotty here! Be sure to download the coordinates first when you have service before coming to this site!
History
In July of 2013, the protection of the Community Research Forest was made possible through a creative partnership between The Land Conservancy of McHenry County, a private landowner, McHenry County Conservation District and a grant from Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation. The Conservation District purchased 53 acres, funded in large part by a grant from the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation; and The Land Conservancy of McHenry County maintains a 40 acre conservation easement donated by a private landowner.
The Community Research Forest is a complex array of wooded natural communities dominated by white, red, black, scarlet and bur oaks intermixed with both young and mature 200–300 year old trees, including co–dominant species of bitternut hickory and black cherry. The balance of the natural areas consists of sedge meadow, ephemeral ponds, intermittent streams, and former pasture.
Land Protection Efforts
Straddling the western edge of the Marengo Ridge near Harvard, Illinois, the Community Research Forest is part of a cluster of previously protected natural areas, a near contiguous stretch of land identified on the McHenry County Green Infrastructure Plan and the Conservation District Land Protection Plan as the Brookdale Oak Woodland and Wetland Complex. Together this cluster of oak ecosystem sites encompasses over 2,700 acres of protected land preserved by several entities and private individuals. The complex includes the Conservation District’s Rush Creek and Brookdale Conservation Areas, the TLC Gateway Park, Marengo Moraine, Woodstock Center and Frisbie Conservation Areas, and the privately owned Halo Hills Nature Preserve. The Community Research serves as an important component of the Conservation District’s Land Protection Plan for the Big Woods section of the county.
The Big Woods of McHenry County once extended for miles from Marengo to Alden, straddling the steep topography of the Marengo Ridge. Today only scattered remnants of that massive woodland survive, with most of those blocks less than twenty acres in size. The opportunity to preserve a nearly one hundred acre stand of oaks is rare and the potential to study their ecosystem components in a large block equally unusual.
Cache Your Way Question
Due to several aquatic species populations declining and water quality becoming poor, what law was passed in 1972 to help improve water quality?
To learn how to participate in the GeoSeries and earn a special District geocoin visit MCCDistrict.org/Geocache
Geocachers
Please join us in playing! Geocaching is a high-tech “treasure hunting” game played throughout the world by adventure seeker. All are welcome who observe and obey the rules.
- Please do not move or vandalize the container.
- Once you find it, log your name in the book, take a trinket and leave one of your own behind for the next person.
- Replace the cache in the same spot that you found it, and make sure it is completely covered.
- Please do not remove the informational card from the containers, this is an essential game piece for cachers completing the GeoSeries.
- The real treasure is finding the container and sharing your thoughts with everyone who finds it.
For a complete list of rules and instructions on how to earn a special district geocoin visit MCCDistrict.org/Geocache
McHenry County Conservation District Information
Visit our website at MCCDistrict.org or call (815) 338-6223
Photo Release
5/20/2021 Photos posted here may be featured on the McHenry County Conservation District's various social media accounts including Facebook, Instagram, and twitter, as well as our website (MCCDistrict.org) and print material such as Landscapes Magazine. By posting photos to this log you agree to allow us to share your work. Photographers will be acknowledged in any shares or posts of photos, so please include your name in your post if it is different from that of your username.