September 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 29

The Forest Preserves' Land Acknowledgement was ﬁrst read
on Indigenous Peoples Day in 2019 at a celebration of the new
Serpent Twin Mound (Pokto Činto) at Schiller Woods.

ters ongoing partnerships with local institutions and
community groups located around Beaubien Woods
on the South Side of Chicago. Body cameras have been
purchased for all our police in the field, and we have
begun an implicit bias training program in which all
Forest Preserves of Cook County employees, starting
with our police department, will participate.
In the winter of 2018, we also launched a Racial
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion committee (REDI) to
begin addressing internal structural issues and to operationalize equity. Our committee starts with the idea
that when the system is viewed with an equity lens,
the benefits of racial equity extend beyond a targeted
group to reach everyone.
REDI first-year projects focused on improving our
community engagement outreach, staff training opportunities and human resources processes. Second-year
projects will continue to focus on improving human resources processes and training endeavors for staff and
volunteers.
Like all of Cook County, the Forest Preserves sits on
land that was taken from Indigenous people, specifically
the Council of Three Fires - the Ojibwa, Ottawa and
Potawatomi tribes. To recognize this fact, we now have
a land acknowledgement statement, along with a guide
on how to integrate the statement in Forest Preserves
events, so people are aware that Native Americans still
live and practice their heritage and traditions in Cook
County and these are their ancestral homelands.
The Forest Preserves has been fortunate to receive
an NRPA Heart Your Park grant. Through this grant,
we envisioned engaging local residents to participate in
our stewardship days and forest therapy walks. Due to
restrictions on gathering in groups due to COVID-19,
we've had to rethink this approach.
Our Forest Therapy guide, Dr. Kim Ruffin, author
of Black on Earth, came up with the brilliant concept
of a forest therapy audio walk with the theme of " belonging " that is inclusive and welcoming to new users,
volunteers and staff. We hope the audio will bring healing to those who hear it, remind them that they belong
in natural spaces and convey that nature can care for
them in their own unique way, whether it is in their local forest preserve, their yard or wherever a wild flower
may be found.
At the Forest Preserves of Cook County, we recognize that we certainly don't have all the answers for racial equity at a land management agency, and our work

is not done. Many of our goals are ongoing, and we
continue to look for opportunities to improve equity inside our organization and in the preserves themselves.
We do know that we have the responsibility and are
committed to doing the hard work of striving toward
racial equity and to providing a natural space where
every person truly feels welcome and safe.
Raquel García-Álvarez is the Stewardship Program
Coordinator at the Forest Preserves of Cook County.

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Parks & Recreation

September 2020 - Parks & Recreation

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