WHERE NATURE MEETS NURTURE

With new partnerships and hands-on programs, the Lake Forest Open Lands Center for Conservation Leadership program is fostering environmental stewardship across Lake County.

WHAT BEGAN 15 YEARS AGO as a high school program designed to cultivate the next generation of Lake County environmental stewards has blossomed into something far more expansive. Today, Lake Forest Open Lands’ Center for Conservation Leadership (CCL) offers nurturing, nature-based programming for learners of all ages and abilities.

By co-creating programs with community partners, CCL has dramatically widened its reach.

“We’re doing everything from field trips for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Lake County, to nature hikes for veterans at North Chicago’s Lovell VA, to monthly Full Moon Walks in partnership with Drip & Culture Socially Minded Coffee in Waukegan,” says CCL Director Julia Lunn. “Studies show that time in nature improves mental, physical, and emotional well-being,” Lunn adds. “So, we are doing all we can to break down barriers to the natural world for residents throughout Lake County who may have limited access.”

Even as CCL expands, it continues to maintain signature opportunities for high-school students: a Yellowstone Stewardship Program in partnership with Waukegan High School, an Owakonze camping and canoeing expedition with Cristo Rey St. Martin, and CCL’s Eco-Ambassador Internship.

The results are both meaningful and memorable. Take the Full Moon Hikes, which “are really magical,” says Adam Carson, founder of Drip & Culture, explaining that they “set out at moonrise, hiking the Jean and John Greene Nature Preserve trail down to the Lake Michigan shore and back.”

Each 90-minute hike draws about 40 participants. “People are so happy to participate,” Carson continues. “To breathe in the fresh air and have some mindfulness moments in nature. On our last walk, there were even coyotes nearby, howling at the moon.”

Equally impactful were the experiences of more than two dozen high-school students who participated in CCL’s summer programs. Twelve journeyed to Yellowstone National Park, eight paddled through the remote wilderness of Canada, and four served as CCL’s first Eco-Ambassador interns, working with researchers and scientists at Illinois Beach State Park.

Funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration through the Illinois Coastal Management Program and the Prairie Research Institute, the Eco-Ambassadors internship launched this year as an eight-week pilot that CCL plans to continue.

“It was successful,” says Lunn, “not only as a vehicle for hands-on learning and stewardship, but also because it gave each participant the opportunity to bring their unique voice and vision to the work.”

One standout project came from Eco-Ambassador Jaxson Bailey, who wrote a rhyming children’s story about Illinois Beach State Park. Illustrated by Lake Forest artist and CCL partner Lyndsay Murphree, Bailey’s From Marsh to Shore, Let Nature Roar has already been incorporated into the Lake County Audubon’s Piping Plover exhibit at the Carnegie Library.

“It’s also my hope to create a LFOLA program based on the book,” adds Lunn.

Bailey, a senior at Waukegan High School, conceived the story as a fun way to teach his young niece what he learned during the internship—especially that ecosystems are both vital and fragile. As one verse reads:
“Ellie leaned in to pick a flower,
But stopped herself that very hour.
This plant might be food or someone’s shade—
A home for a beetle or eggs newly laid.”

“Jaxson’s book, and the work of the other interns, is a reminder that conservation is not just about protecting landscapes, it’s about cultivating the next generation of leaders who will carry this work forward,” Lunn says. “CCL’s mission is to engage, inspire, and activate people of all ages to connect with the natural world. At this time in history, when so much feels tenuous, that mission is crucial.”