Paul Roots, a resource technician with the Cook County Forest Preserve, clears away brush and invasive plants along the shores of Baker’s Lake on July 31, 2023, in Barrington. Roots and other workers who spend time in the forest preserve keep a lookout for people foraging and poaching vegetation. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
When you think about poaching, ramps are likely not the first thing that come to mind.
But as foraging has grown in popularity, plants including ramps, a popular wild onion, and mushrooms such as morels are frequently targeted by poachers to sell to Chicago-area restaurants.
Poaching constitutes removing anything that naturally occurs in the forest preserves, from catching animals to collecting edible plants to picking flowers. The simple act of removing a plant can have unforeseen repercussions and disrupt the ecosystem.
“Most people think it’s a harmless act,” said Martin Hasler, deputy chief of the Cook County Forest Preserves Police Department. “The forest preserve is for all of us and taking away anything from it disturbs the forest preserve from its natural state.”
Poaching in the forest preserves has always been an issue, but the rise of foraging is changing how it’s done, said John McCabe, director of resource management with the Cook County Forest Preserves. He said forest preserves employees have found swaths of land where plants have been pulled up or destroyed completely.
McCabe credits social media for the increase in foraging, the practice of gathering plants and sometimes animals for consumption or profit. He said people who frequent the forest preserves will often post about where they went and what they gathered, leading to others following in their footsteps.
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Have seen persons with bags on the north section of Bode Lake preserve west of the water tower and east of route 59.