Open space acquisition and protection is under-funded in Illinois.

In March 2007, the Illinois Environmental Council Education Fund released "Illinois State Land Conservation Funding," a report documenting the historical trends in Illinois around open space funding. The study found that Illinois ranked in the bottom third of states in spending for open space and dead last by a wide margin in the Midwest in state-owned protected land. Illinois has gone from spending an average of nearly $50 million a year on open space acquisition in the early 2000s to averaging less than $10 million annually over the last few years.

The report documented these specific results of under-funding open space in Illinois:

• Illinois has lost more than 90 percent of its original wetlands, 99.99 percent of its original prairie, and currently has 424 state and 24 federally listed threatened and endangered species within its boundaries.
• Illinois ranks last by a wide margin among Midwestern states in acres protected per capita, with only 1 percent of its land owned by the state.
• Illinois spent $2.67 per resident on open space annually during its peak years of investment, while Ohio spent $4.36, Minnesota spent $5.76 and Wisconsin spent $9.80. Funding in Illinois has since dropped by about 80 percent.

Parcels of open land have become increasingly more expensive as real estate values have risen in the last decade, and many have been lost to development. The IECEF report showed that rural farmland real estate prices have risen 68 percent statewide from 2000 to 2006, and, in places like Chicago's collar counties, development has occurred at a ferocious rate. Kendall County, for example, is the third-fastest-growing county in the nation. With reliable state funding, Illinois can begin the process of acquiring important parcels of land before the cost becomes prohibitive or the opportunities are gone.

The iSPACE Proposal:

When the IECEF report was released in 2007, PPW called for new funding of $100 million and presented the Illinois Special Places Acquisition, Conservation and Enhancement program, more commonly known as the iSPACE proposal. The program aimed to protect open spaces by providing $100 million annually in a capital spending plan for conservation programs. These funds would be designated for:

• A new statewide land acquisition program (similar to the Open Lands Trust) to protect the State's most precious natural resources and provide recreational opportunities.
• Partners in Conservation (formerly C2000) for habitat restoration and management grants.
• Implementation of the Hunting Heritage Protection Act by increasing the amount of land acreage available for hunting opportunities.

As of the close of the Spring 2008 session of the Illinois General Assembly, a capital budget for $200 million in iSPACE funding had been proposed, but it had not been acted on.

Illinois Department of Natural Resources budget cuts hinder its mission.

On July 10, 2008, Governor Blagojevich chopped $19 million from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources budget as part of $1.5 billion in line-item vetoes he made to balance the 2009 budget. This move decreased by another 20% the general fund budget for the IDNR, an agency that has already lost nearly a quarter of its staff from budget cuts and hiring freezes since 2001.

As a result of these cuts, the IDNR announced the layoff of 450 employees and the closing of 11 state parks by Nov. 1, 2008, and 13 historic sites by Oct. 1, 2008, dates which subsequently were moved back to Nov. 30 and Oct. 15 respectively. Ultimately, seven parks were closed, but the new Illinois governor, Patrick Quinn, reopened them shortly after taking office in February 2009.

In the 2009 legislative session, PPW member groups are working hard to make the most of the new leadership in Springfield and are pushing for more funding for the IDNR and a capital budget that includes significant funding for land acquisition and open space so Illinois can reclaim its role as a national leader in natural resource management.