By STEVE MICHELSON | Kendall
A recent issue of the County Line included coverage of the minutes of the Kendall Village Board meeting. In that meeting, a discussion of the possibility of “bulldozing” the small forest in Glenwood Park was presented. The reasoning cited was that it would provide fill needed for other projects within the park, one would suppose at a cost savings to the public.
I would submit that the cost would be incalculably expensive when considering the aesthetic value of that small stand of woods. Without the trees, the only real natural feature of the park would be a small bluff and a nice stretch of stream. Although it is not a large tract of timber, it does have some qualities which make it worth keeping. There are numerous stately White Pines there, and perhaps most significant are the Eastern Hemlock trees. The Hemlock is rare at this latitude, but the conditions of that little bluff allow it to survive there. Two nearby state natural areas exist for the very same reason: Parfrey’s Glen (near Devil’s Lake State Park) and Mount Pisgah Hemlock/Hardwoods (at Wildcat Mountain State Park).
If the need to find cheap, convenient fill involves decimating that small forest, will the park be renamed just Glen Park?
