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Q&A: How A Local Teacher Built Central Illinois' Guide To The Great Outdoors

The Emiquon Nature Preserve in Fulton County. The former Havana Power Plant is visible in the distance, across the Illinois River.
Tim Shelley
/
WCBU
The Emiquon Nature Preserve in Fulton County. The former Havana Power Plant is visible in the distance, across the Illinois River.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, local parks and trails became a lifeline for those looking for safe ways to get out of the house.

Tim Shelley recently spoke with Julie Robinson, a retired teacher who runs the Local Opal website, which stands for "Local Outdoor Playing and Learning." The not-for-profit resource provides a guide to Central Illinois outdoors activities both well-known and obscure.

TIM SHELLEY: So we're here today to talk about Local Opal. So let's just start with just where the idea for this came from.

JULIE ROBINSON: I think from a lot of places over a long period of time. I, in teaching, I watch kids a lot and try to get them to engage. And since I don't know, 2010, 2012, it went from you would walk in as a teacher to a classroom full of kids who were talking to each other. And you'd be like, 'Guys, come on, we need quiet now, we need to get started.' And you know, it took a while. And in the last, I don't know, 5, 10 years, it's almost been, you'd walk in and it's dead silent, because they're all on their phones. And I saw more anxiety, more depression. I saw my first young kids have panic attacks. And it's like, 'Okay, what is going on here?'

So I felt like they were really attached to their phones. So over the course of time, I would say 'Hey, kids, you know, where are these great parks, you should go take a hike.' And they knew that I like to hike and camp and do those things. And some of them did. I'd say 'Oh, go up and do the River Bluff Trail.' And they would Google "river bluff trail." And they're like, yeah, where, how? And so I draw maps and things.

And then I got involved with the Master Naturalist program, through U of I's Extension office in 2018. And I started discovering places that I didn't know existed. And I kind of felt like a fool. Like, how did I not know this was here? How did I not share this with my students and their families? Something needs to be done. So I thought, oh, can't be that hard to put together a pamphlet for them and their families and then say, hey, here, you can go these places. But there were really a lot of places. And there were some places that you just couldn't really find adequate information. I think park districts do the best they can. But we have so many different entities. We have federal, we have state, we have all kinds of things. And some of them just don't have a website presence. They just don't have a lot of information. It's hard to sift through. So they just didn't go, so, well, build that. But in finding so many of them that were it was too many to put on on a on a sheet of paper. So that's when I decided, Okay, I'll build something that will be easier for them to do.

TIM SHELLEY: It's kind of become the guide for "Where can I go do something outside?" You know, a park, hiking trail, bike trail, whatever it is, you're in the Peoria area. So I mean, tell me a little bit. You mentioned you didn't even know about a lot of them. I didn't know about [a lot of them] - I've lived here my entire life - until I looked at your site. And I'm like, I had no idea this existed like, I don't know, like the Spring Bay Fen was one I had no idea that was there. And it's probably 10 minutes away from my house.

JULIE ROBINSON: I agree. I had the same situation happen. I had no idea that Spring Creek Preserve was just right up the road. From there, I knew about the River Bluff Trail, but I didn't realize we had multiple access points to it. And probably that thing, there are just so many of the Greater Peoria Canoe and Kayak Trail. I had no idea that even existed, but it's such a cool idea that takes in so many communities. They're just all over the place. And we need to know about them.

TIM SHELLEY: So what are some of the benefits of doing this? I mean, beyond just getting outside and exploring nature, I guess. Tell me a little bit about that. Why do you like to do it personally?

JULIE ROBINSON: I think it probably started when I was a kid. I spent a lot of time on my grandparent's farm and outside was always where I was most comfortable. It was kind of my refuge when things were kind of crazy and in my home, and I've just loved it. If it's outside, I'll go. So I think there's a huge amount of research and Richard Louv's book, Last Child in the Woods, about how much it benefits our mental health and our physical health. There's the research out there. There are even a group of doctors on the West Coast who will write a nature prescription to help people. Nature can't cure everything. But it can certainly help. I think it not only enriches our lives, I think it makes us healthier in the long run and I hope it brings us together as a community. It's like if you live in a rural area, go visit a city park. They're really cool. If you live in the city, go visit one of these rural areas. It's different. It's a good challenge to your balance.

TIM SHELLEY: You have several counties, and I'm gonna miss some of them, but I know Peoria, Tazewell, Woodford. I think you've got like Fulton County, Mason County, Marshall. I think you're trying to do a little bit of McLean County, even. So it really it just if you want to take a hour long road trip somewhere new, it's there.

JULIE ROBINSON: It is, and I hope people do explore it and explore some of the really cool towns along the way there. There are some really great places to eat along the way. And you don't want to miss those. It's kind of that small town feeling some places or the big city feel, whichever you're looking for, but we have a lot of them.

TIM SHELLEY: What are a couple of your favorites that you've run into? I know it's hard to pick just a couple.

JULIE ROBINSON: I was afraid you were gonna ask that question. Sometimes it depends on what season it is. It depends on what I want to do. Do I want to snowshoe? Do I want to cross country ski? Do I want to look at the beautiful fall colors? A couple of them. Oh, that's hard.

We were at Dixon Wildlife Refuge up by Hennepin this past week. And the wildflowers were just incredible. They were as beautiful as ones we've seen backpacking in the Tetons. It's like, Oh my gosh, and that's an hour from our house. I will always be attached to the map in our river for paddling. That is just that is that at home River. It's really cool. And it's neat to take our next generation of kids with us on that. Letcher Basin, which is kind of over toward in McLean County, that general direction to Parklands property, is just a beautiful open basin. That if you look at from a Google map, and then you hike it, it's just wide open. The River Bluff Trail, you backpack, you can hike it, you can do a section of it. Sand Ridge, oh my gosh, I can do this 360.

TIM SHELLEY: Sand Ridge is, I mean, cactus - cactus in Central Illinois!

JULIE ROBINSON: Exactly. And the prickly pear cactus should be blooming about now. It's like, who knew that? You know, we have we have the largest state forest in our backyard, we have the only state tree nursery in our backyard. We have people don't realize we have tens of thousand of acres of public access acres at our fingertips, and 99% of them are free.

TIM SHELLEY: So you don't have to, you know, you think you have to go somewhere extravagant, get on a plane, go somewhere to explore nature. And there is certainly an appeal to that. You know, you can't climb a mountain around here, let's say, but there's a lot you can do.

JULIE ROBINSON: There is. I love to travel to I also love to come home. This has been my home for my entire life. But really, where else can you get up from backpacking and camping and hike back to your car and pick up really good food for breakfast? And then say, yeah, I'm gonna go for a bike ride and then say, you know, I think I'm gonna go for a paddle this afternoon. And you go do that. And then you're like, oh, there's a theatre production downtown, I'm gonna go do that and have a really nice meal downtown, and you are never more than 25 miles from your house. I don't think people realize how rich our area is in those sorts of things.

TIM SHELLEY: During the pandemic, you talked a little bit about trying to get kids more interested in the natural world around them. I mean, during the pandemic, you can't go anywhere. Everything's closed. Did you see more interest?

JULIE ROBINSON: I did. And it's been kind of fun. It's been a learning experience, because I had no idea how to build a website, let alone look at the analytics of it. The math stuff I can handle, but how to hook all that up and make it, do it, was a new adventure. Yeah, that the word is out and people are investigating. And I don't think it's just the kids. I think it's the adults, too. We have about anywhere between 2020 and 2300 visitors a month. And I think the Chamber of Commerce might be a little shocked to know that about a third of those consistently come from the Chicago area. So I'm thinking, hoping, that people from that area are coming down to visit. And I do still hear from some of my students about 'hey, I went to your park.' It's like I don't own a park. I'm not wealthy enough to have started a park like Robinson Park. It's like, it's not my park, but it's a really cool park and I'm glad you went.

TIM SHELLEY: And hopefully that sparks a lifetime of enjoying the outdoors, and also hopefully learning a little bit about stewardship, as well?

JULIE ROBINSON: Exactly. And I think that's one of the goals to connect people. You want them to discover it and you want them to enjoy it and then hopefully come to love it, and then hopefully come to help care for it, because I'm just the messenger saying there are all these really cool places. But me being able to be the messenger is built on the fact that we have had so many community members over 100, 150 years set aside these areas to preserve them for our generation and generations to come. And we into this day, we still have thousands of people who volunteer to keep these places looking the way they do. The Jubilee Prairie Dogs do an unbelievable job trying to maintain native prairies ,and the work that people do voluntarily out of the goodness of their heart is just incredible. So we all have those places. Absolutely. So people in past generations took care of them for us, now it's our turn to take care of them for next generation. Exactly. And hopefully introduce them to them. I think a lot of it is, we just don't know. It's hard to know what you don't know. It's like, okay, guys, look, it's right here.

TIM SHELLEY: Anything else you want to let people know about Local Opal or anything else?

JULIE ROBINSON: I encourage you to go outside, you'll feel better. Your kids will love it. There are lots of places on there to look, but there are also resources to if you think oh, I don't know what I'm going to do with my three year old child when I take them into the woods. There are some things on there for that. Hopefully we've addressed a lot of different learning styles or looking styles. You want to look by map, you want to by County, however you're comfortable. But go outside and see it. It's a beautiful place to call home.

Tim is the News Director at WCBU Peoria Public Radio.