Some of the Lake County Forest Preserves’ 1,241 volunteers joke they work “eight days a week.” That dedication shows up in the numbers. In 2025, our volunteers donated 21,410 hours, valued at $734,149.
Opportunities are open to all, with training provided and no experience necessary. Volunteers are active in habitat restoration, education, seed processing, transcription, gardening, photography and other disciplines.
Their stories look different, but they’re built on the same bedrock. Showing up, again and again, for the Forest Preserves and each other. Let’s meet some of them.
Forest Preserves Mentioned:
Selected Links and Sources:
- “2024 Slough Lake Summary Report,” Lake County Health Department
- Bess Bower Dunn, Dunn Museum
- Common buckthorn, Lake County Forest Preserves
- Dame’s rocket, Illinois Wildflowers
- Every Acre Strong
- Fall 2026 Horizons
- Flickr Group, Lake County Forest Preserves
- Forest Preserves calendar
- Horizons subscriptions
- “Hundreds of Young Invasive Carp Found Closer to Lake Michigan Than Ever Before, Just as Work Has Stopped on Billion-Dollar Barrier,” WTTW Chicago
- “Invasive Garlic Mustard,” University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- Lake Forest High School
- Northshore Garden of Memories, Memorial Planning
- Research and Collections, Dunn Museum
- “The Capture of Half Day,” Chicago Tribune
- Volunteer opportunities
This episode of Words of the Woods was written, hosted and produced by Brett Peto, environmental communications specialist at the Lake County Forest Preserves.
Many thanks to Tim Elliott, Liz Rose Fisher, Leroy Howze, Barbara Johnson, R. Scott McNeill, Bill Oakes, Diane Phillips, Kay Ross, Judith Salstone, Mat Sullivan, Dave Szaflarski, Tom Wilson and every other volunteer for contributing to the Forest Preserves’ mission.
Additional reporting by Kim Mikus. Music and sound effects from Storyblocks. Audio editing and mixing by Brett Peto.
If you like what the forest preserves do for you, please consider donating to the Preservation Foundation’s Every Acre Strong campaign for the Forest Preserves. Your gift will help create a $20 million endowment to protect the forest preserves you love, ensuring every acre of habitat we restore remains ecologically healthy. Forever. Learn more and give at LCFPD.org/endowment.
Subscribe to Horizons at LCFPD.org/horizons.
Have questions or comments? Send them to WordsOfTheWoods@LCFPD.org.
Words of the Woods is a production of the Lake County Forest Preserves in Libertyville, Illinois.
