Name: Death By A Thousand Cuts - Encroachment!
Start: 2025-03-01T13:15:00-0600
End: 2025-03-01T14:00:00-0600

The Wild Things Conference Returns Saturday, March 1, 2025 - SOLD OUT

We’re thrilled to welcome you again to learn and share your expertise with our community. We’ve put together an exciting lineup of workshops and sessions from regional and national experts, plus meet & greets, video content, exhibitors, and sponsors. With over 140 presentations and discussion panels to choose from, the in-person program engages a diverse range of topics, research, and skills, and plenty of opportunities to meet with friends, old and new.

Thank you as well to our sponsors, scholarship supporters, and exhibitors who are all helping to make this another tremendously successful Wild Things.

Tickets for Wild Things 2025 are sold out. For additional information on the 2025 conference, visit wildthingscommunity.org.

**PLEASE NOTE: Some details are subject to change.**

NOTICE: Please be advised that photos and videos will be taken during Wild Things 2025. By attending, you consent to be photographed, filmed, and/or otherwise recorded. Your attendance on this event constitutes your agreement to the use of any resulting media by Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves for promotional, marketing, or any other purpose in perpetuity, without further approval or any compensation.

Saturday March 1, 2025 1:15pm - 2:00pm CST

Rooms 55, 57

Preserving public land does not just include defending it from invasive species, but also safeguarding it from hostile takeover by a more insidious foe: people. Believe it or not, the Forest Preserves of Cook County has hundreds of acres of land that is functionally disposed or illegally encroached upon, whether unknowingly or with intention, by hundreds of homeowners, private businesses, municipalities, and even other government agencies. The encroachment and non-mission related use of these lands runs the gamut. Take a dive into how these encroachments occur and hear how some of the more egregious offenders justify effectively taking over Preserve property for their personal use. Moreover, learn about the legal repercussions of encroachment on public lands, and how the Forest Preserves is battling this scourge and walking the political tightrope to resolve some of these impacts.

Presenters

John McCabe

Director Department of Resource Management, Forest Preserves of Cook County

I have worked for the Forest Preserves of Cook County since 1990 and am currently in the role of Director of our department of Resource Management. The day-to-day duties of this position is overseeing our Resource Crews, Project Management, Conservation Corps, Fisheries, Wildlife... Read More →

Saturday March 1, 2025 1:15pm - 2:00pm CST
Rooms 55, 57

Stewardship & Ecology, General

Session Session Block D: 1:15 - 2 PM

Wild Things 2025

John McCabe

Attendees (146)

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