Summer 1999

Sand dunes, lizards, cacti — are we talking about Chicago Wilderness?

Will County, Illinois

Nestled in the far north reaches of the Kankakee Sand Area of Illinois, Braidwood Dunes and Savanna Nature Preserve offers a rare glimpse at the remains of an ancient sand dune created 11,000 years ago.

Past the gray gravel preserve parking lot — 60 miles southwest of downtown Chicago — a sign sits firmly planted in the sand, covered by a wood-shingled triangular roof, at the foreground of a breezy orange and yellow field of prairie grass. A quick assessment of this 288-acre dedicated state nature preserve comes in the form of cartographic scribblings set behind a worn Plexiglas case.

According to the posted map and legend, notable aspects of this preserve include: roads, a parking lot, trails, wetlands, prairie, and savanna. But what's most basic — most primordial — about Braidwood Dunes and Savanna isn't indicated on signs. It's underfoot. As a path winds its way east out of the parking lot and into the black oak savanna, sandy sections of trail give way to impressions of hiking along the beach and trips to the wild west.

In open areas exposed to sun and sky, clusters of cactus come into view. Turning the corner, a quarter of the way through a mile and a half loop, a lizard scurries off the trail and sits still in the underbrush, displaced from his place in the sun. The long dark stripes on its light brown back come into focus and the camera clicks once, twice, three times. The lizard finally shoots off into sand — running for cover among anemones and orange dandelions growing in the shady sand savanna ahead.

The "dunes" here are remnants of Lake Wauponsee, a glacial lake created by the onrush of water from the last Ice Age. But Lake Wauponsee doesn't exist anymore. In fact, all that's left of the dunes is a gently sloping, sand-swept topography. But with coal strip mines to the north, new construction to the west, a cemetery to the east, a nuclear power plant nearby, and plots of farmland with great mounds of sand scattered about, the significance of this site — as a rare sand prairie and black oak sand savanna — is magnified.

Efforts to keep Braidwood Dunes and Savanna much like it used to be are evident in vague traces of black around tree trunks. The Forest Preserve District conducts prescribed burns here every three years in an effort to restore natural processes — and natural health — to this fire-dependent ecosystem. Spring and summer volunteer work parties, organized by a local volunteer group known as the Prairie People, also assist in seed collection and planting.

Though trails get muddy when wet (some portions were underwater when I visited in April), box turtles, three-way sedges, six-line race runner lizards, prickly pear cacti, and tubercled orchids are just a few of the plant and animal species that can be found within the preserve.

As a dedicated state nature preserve, neither picnicking, biking, nor pets are allowed.

— Christopher Percy Collier