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PROPOSED INTERGOVERNMENTAL AGREEMENT
Department: Department of Resource Management
Other Part(ies): University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois
Request: Authorization for the Forest Preserves of Cook County (the "Forest Preserves") to enter into a sponsored research agreement
Goods or Services: Research study investigating the first human occupants of Cook County, including modeling, public outreach, and archaeological field surveys of key glacial landscapes contained within the Forest Preserves
Agreement Number(s): #74000011983
Agreement Period: 3/14/2023 - 1/31/2026
Fiscal Impact: $299,826.00 (FY 2023 $101,480.00; FY 2024 $100,124.00; FY 2025 $98,222.00)
Accounts: Professional Services 51033.520840; and all future Construction and Development funds
District(s): Districtwide
Summary: The Forest Preserves seeks to partner with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign through the Illinois State Archaeological Survey to conduct a study titled "First People in a New Landscape: An Interdisciplinary Investigation of Ice Age Cook County." This multi-year research project will synthesize geological, paleontological, archaeological, and climatological data from the late Pleistocene/early Holocene periods to investigate how early humans, as well as the native communities of plants and animals on which they depended, adapted to climate change at the end of the last ice age.
Researchers will conduct field surveys to identify previously unrecorded archaeological sites and develop a predictive model to help inform current land management practices and future land acquisitions. Descendant communities will be consulted for input throughout the project, and a public webpage summarizing the research results will be developed.
Over half of all known archaeological sites within Cook County are protected within the Forest Preserves, the preservation of which provides invaluable information about our region's rich ...
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