Will County forest district board OKs $1 million land deal to expand McKinley Woods

The Forest Preserve District of Will County Board has approved a land purchase that would expand McKinley Woods in Channahon.

The board voted Aug. 8 to acquire land known as McDonald’s farm at a cost of $1,037,400, which will be paid for with proceeds from a $25 million bond issue approved by the board in 2019, according to a news release posted by the forest preserve district.

In this deal, the district did not acquire an adjacent 10-acre parcel that has a home on it and will be finalized at a real estate closing later this year.

The 57-acre McDonald’s land is on the east side of McKinley Woods Road, west of the Des Plaines River and south of the ComEd utility corridor. The preserve’s Frederick’s Grove access area is located south of the new parcel, where McKinley Woods Road is a dead end.

“This acquisition will better allow us to access and maintain existing portions of McKinley Woods that were almost physically impossible to reach in the past,” Colleen Novander, the forest preserve’s director of planning and land preservation, said in the release. “This property will allow for better management of the entire preserve.”

The land expansion will make restoration efforts and other land management activities at the woods easier to accomplish, said Andrew Hawkins, the forest preserve district’s director of conservation.

The 533-acre McKinley Woods, which is part of the Des Plaines River preservation system, was acquired between 1931 and 2004. It is located along the Illinois & Michigan Canal, close to where the DuPage, Kankakee and Des Plaines rivers merge to form the Illinois River.

McKinley Woods also is home to the Four Rivers Environmental Education Center, which is located at the Kerry Sheridan Grove access area.

Earlier this summer, the forest preserve district board approved a $50 million bond plan that will be used to add as many as 1,250 acres to district-owned land, along with converting 3,500 acres of farmland it now holds into preserves. It also will be dedicated to extending existing trails and expanding parking lots to accommodate increased use at preserves.