Sabine Vorkoeper

Sabine Vorkoeper

Landowner Outreach Specialist
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Sabine is currently completing her Naturalist Certificate at the Morton Arboretum, and has restoration and stewardship experience with the St. Charles Park District and McHenry County Conservation District. When she's not working, she is hiking, reading or spending time with her daughter, fiance Fred, or her husky puppy. Sabine was the Executive Director of Fox Valley Land Foundation at the time of the organization's merger with The Conservation Foundation. As a staff member of The Conservation Foundation, her duties focus on landowner contact and outreach in Kane County.

Sabine Vorkoeper Landowner Outreach Specialist 630-553-0687 x303 630-553-0742

Sabine Vorkoeper Executive Director

Sabine's formal training is broad & includes degrees in biology, biophysics, physiology, German literature & journalism.The latter is where she has extensive experience in writing & editing, as well as in advertising & marketing.Look for her more recent work in Chicago Wilderness' Spring '06 edition.Sabine is currently completing her Naturalist Certificate at the Morton Arboretum, and has restoration and stewardship experience with the St. Charles Park District and McHenry County Conservation District.When she's not working, she is hiking, reading or spending time with her daughter.Join us in welcoming Sabine as Fox Valley Land Foundation's new Executive Director.

It feels somehow in keeping, then, that Vorkoeper's own new office peers out over a delightful stretch of real estate that preservationists might want to save someday, too.

Vorkoeper is the executive director of the Fox Valley Land Foundation.It's a nonprofit group that persuades landowners to place permanent restrictions on some of their land, to prevent it from being developed in the future.

"I would say time would be our biggest challenge in trying to save and manage natural areas," Vorkoeper said, adding quickly, "The county is booming so rapidly."

Vorkoeper works out of a rustic farmhouse in northern St. Charles Township, surrounded by trees and meadows and set well back from Route 25.
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The scene not only is pastoral; the building also offers more space than did previous offices in Elgin, Vorkoeper said.Fox Valley Land moved here in May, just after Vorkoeper was named executive director.

Vorkoeper stressed that the Fox Valley Land Foundation focuses on areas of natural significance - mainly, beds of creeks that funnel into the Fox River.
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Vorkoeper said currently there are many more potential projects than there are resources to handle them.

"Often I look at a long list and there are way too many things that have a very high priority," Vorkoeper said.
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One of these, protecting a stretch of Mill Creek, was signed by the Deerpath Homeowners Association in Batavia, Vorkoeper said: it covers about 25 acres.

Such small parcels are not available for use by the public, but Vorkoeper noted they can act as connecting links between larger properties that are owned by such bodies as the forest preserve district.
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"We tackle the smaller properties that are not a priority [for public bodies]," Vorkoeper said.

The foundation also manages a separate program, called the Heritage Land Registry, under which foundation volunteers aid land owners in keeping their scenic properties in a natural state.Here, the enemy is not development per se, but rather natural invaders like the garlic mustard, whose rapidly propagating seeds tend to drown out indigenous plant species, Vorkoeper said.

Her long-term goal is to enable the public to see the results of the foundation's efforts.

"Down the road, we would like to own one of our conservation easements because it would be really nice for people to go to one of the properties and enjoy them," Vorkoeper said.
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- Who: Executive Director Sabine Vorkoeper and board President June Keibler.

Sabine Vorkoeper
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Sabine is currently completing her Naturalist Certificate at the Morton Arboretum, and has restoration and stewardship experience with the St. Charles Park District and McHenry County Conservation District. When she's not working, she is hiking, reading or spending time with her daughter, fiance Fred, or her husky puppy. Sabine was the Executive Director of Fox Valley Land Foundation at the time of the organization's merger with The Conservation Foundation. As a staff member of The Conservation Foundation, her duties focus on landowner contact and outreach in Kane County.