Organic Growth

By Mark Loehrke

The Forest Preserve District of Will County recently celebrated the first certified organic crop harvested on its land with the wheat harvest at its Jackson Creek Preserve. The harvest by farmer Doug Yunker was the culmination of a multiyear plan to convert the field near Frankfort from conventional agriculture to organic farming (crops cannot be certified organic until a field has been free of pesticides and herbicides for three years). The farming is intended to keep invasive species and woody vegetation off the land until the district has the funds to restore it to its natural state, and the use of organic farming methods can help smooth that transition.