My Turn/Barbara Thuerk
Lakewood equestrian site is saddled with questions
July 14, 2007
In response to Bonnie Thomson Carter's July 7 letter in The News-Sun:
I have always admired the Lake County Forest Preserve District for its insight into preserving open land and helping keep wildlife alive, as well as the wonderful plant life that can be found at Lakewood Forest Preserve. That is why I am so disturbed over the Olympic venue and forest preserve destruction that the board is about to level upon us.
Let me state that I am not against the Olympics coming to Lake County. Good for Lake County. But I oppose the use of the Lakewood Forest Preserve for these games.
As for the use of the stadium after the games for therapeutic riding, great. But that will take a string of very specialized horses, as well as qualified instructors. There are at least three centers for this kind of therapy in the area right now located in Barrington, Gurnee and Richmond.
Rome was not built in a day and neither will the Olympic equestrian center. A structure like this does not appear two weeks before the event, nor do the other structures, including the arenas and housing. Spectator parking will also require a lot of land use. This will further endanger the wildlife and habitat in Lakewood.
A three-day event, cross-country course does not appear like magic, either. Courses of that magnitude take a long time to construct. They are approximately four miles in length -- much more than the farmer's field stated in Bonnie's letter.
There are 30 to 35 jumping efforts. Those jumps are approximately the width of a three-lane road. There is a post for the jump judge and then the spectators will trample through what is left of the "woods". Bleachers or some kind of a viewing area to watch the horses come by and jump their jumps will need to be built.
The present trail area is made up of sand and limestone. It can rain 40 days and 40 nights out there and we can still ride on them. This is not a proper surface for event horses to use for jumping or galloping. There might be one or two places on the current trails that are wide enough to host a jump. The rest would require land fill because most of the trails are built over wet land with many drainage culverts.
In addition, the logging industry will have to be called in to remove hundreds of trees. The board has stated that much of the cross-country course will be left intact for future use. Unfortunately, there are only a few courses in the world with the rating and magnitude of an Olympic course.
In the meantime, who will police the course so that people not qualified to jump these kinds of jumps are not out there doing just that. Liability? You bet!
I really don't understand how the environmental balance will be maintained while all of this construction is happening. Let's not forget that just several years ago a model airplane airport was closed in this very area because it posed problems with the sandhill cranes. In fact, right in the middle of this Olympic center there lies a wetland where there are cranes currently nesting. I don't think a buffer would do much good here.
Finally, there are the spectators. How will they get to this event? On Route 12 or Fairfield Road? Imagine 100,000 or more spectators driving on these two roads.
Morton Grove resident Barbara Thuerk has ridden the equestrian trails at Lakewood Forest Preserve for more than 25 years