I was initially relieved to read the opening statement in Susan Kuczak's August  3 article "Equestrian trail plan scrapped" that the Lake County Forest Preserve District (LCFPD) has decided to find a site outside of the Lakewood Forest Preserve for the 2016 Olympic equestrian trails.  But then she writes "district officials will look for another site within Lakewood".  I am confused.  Outside and inside?  Will the stadium, stables, and other buildings stay?  Doesn't this just jeopardize some other land we have taxed ourselves to preserve? 

If the LCFPD is obliged to provide Chicago with a site for the Olympics it must find a site that will  be improved by the plan.  Improvement requires restoring or acquiring natural areas and open space, the proper use of our preservation taxes and the obligation of the Forest PRESERVE Board. The board's interest in the Olympics is political and economic not preservation which is its proper mission.The Olympic trails themselves will not improve Lakewood, not even for equestrian use,  as the design is specific to Olympic competition.    

It is so difficult to improve a gem like Lakewood that the district board has resorted to calling portions of it "low value"(apparently the sandhill cranes nesting there were not informed) and promising to offer handicapped children equestrian programs after the 2016 Olympics (Why not begin now?).  They have pitched the plan to local chambers of commerce as "good for economic development". 

An appropriate Olympic plan would sell on its environmental merits.  It would be championed by preservationists, not feared by them.  A parcel of blighted, even polluted, truly low value land should be restored to natural prairie, wetland or woodland.  This would be a plan to make the district board, the taxpayers and corporate and private sponsors proud.  Indeed, previous Olympics plans have accomplished this. Furthermore, this strategy is promoted by the International Olympic Committee and would make Chicago's proposal more attractive.

The other challenge for the district board is to develop an Olympic equestrian site that will work. In your article Bonnie Thompson Carter states the board "never considered the possibility of cutting down trees."  This was true in the beginning when they simplistically stated Lakewood was a good site "because it already has equestrian trails."  They did not "consider" much when they committed our land because they did not even know the requirements for an Olympic equestrian site.  Rather, they jumped on a political/economic opportunity. They cannot plead ignorance since the final "advisory committee" meeting a few months ago (the board canceled any further meetings as criticism of the plan was increasing) when a member of the public, disturbed that the board members could not state the width or length of the trails required by the Olympics, informed them of those requirements.  Saying he had obtained this information from the IOC website spending only half an hour on his lunch break, he complained they were not doing their jobs.

In previous newspaper articles Bonnie Carter stated that people fear the plan only because they do not know the details.  In fact, the few details provided, like the trails plan, are not feasible.  The estimate that 300 acres will be needed is only a third of the area used in the past few Olympics.  In fact, the board cannot provide detail because it still does not know what is required.  The equestrian expert's critique ( checking the IOC website would have sufficed) of the trail plan you mentioned demonstrates this. At other times board chair Carter has assured us not worry because the plan is "only preliminary".  But, she has been adamant that using Lakewood "is a done deal".

The Lake County Forest Preserve District Board has a huge task ahead of it.  It needs to find land that an Olympic plan can improve environmentally, and also learn enough to formulate a workable plan.  If they cannot I hope the agreement with Chicago does not oblige us in Lake County to sacrifice valuable open space. Most importantly, the board needs to restore the trust of voters like me.  Their proposed use of the Lakewood Forest Preserve for the Olympics makes me suspect both their motivations and their competence. 

 

Ken Tomchik

Wauconda