Conservation District Act

The Conservation District Act authorizes the formation of conservation districts as local units of government empowered to acquire and manage land for conservation and outdoor recreation, with a mandate to preserve natural conditions and protect native plant and animal life across a substantial portion of their holdings. Each district is governed by a board of trustees that acts through ordinances and holds the powers typical of a special-purpose taxing district: acquiring real property by purchase, installment contract, or eminent domain, levying taxes and special assessments, issuing bonds and tax anticipation warrants, employing staff, annexing territory, and accepting state or federal grants and loans. The act also sets the terms of a district's corporate existence and its end — providing for judicial notice of the district as a body corporate that may sue and be sued, and for voter-initiated dissolution or conversion into a forest preserve district.

Editorial summary generated from the text of this act. It is not part of the statute — read the sections below for the operative language.