Sugar Grove Nature Center in Funks Grove imposes sudden layoffs

The Sugar Grove Nature Center in Funks Grove, Illinois, imposed sudden layoffs and shut down its visitors center last week, shocking volunteers and former staff members.

Sugar Grove Nature Center consists of over 1,000 acres of preserved forest, the nature center just off Route 66. It regularly hosted field trips and programs about Illinois history and its prairie and once cared for about a dozen animals there.

The nature center also is on the other side of Route 66 from the equally historic Funks Grove Maple Sirup, which has hosted several activities for the center.

The Bloomington Pantagraph reported on the recent development:

The nonprofit Sugar Grove Foundation Board, which oversees the center, on Friday ended the employment of longtime Executive Director Angela Funk, as well as environmental educators Jill Wallace and Mariah Myers, and environmental office specialist Rita Yordy. 

Foundation board president Tricia Braid said the cuts were needed for financial reasons. The grounds, trails and Imagination Grove — a natural play area — remain open from dawn until dusk. 

Board members of the Funks Grove Cemetery Association, which owns much of the land on which the nature center is located, and the Sugar Grove Foundation Board say they are working together to reorganize their approach to “collaborative projects.”

The foundation board, which included a member of the Funk family, voted late last month to cut salaries, the biggest expense of the center. Another said he wanted to bring in more members that were not part of the Funk family.

The center posted this message on Facebook:

The land where the nature center sits was bought by the Funk’s Grove Cemetery Association in the 1990s so it could be turned into a nature sanctuary.

The Funk family has lived in that area, including the original maple trees that produce the sirup, for almost 200 years.

(Image of Sugar Grove Nature Center in Funks Grove, Illinois, by Crystal via Flickr)

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