Fall 1999

Park's walking trails provide a challenge to visitors

Cook County, Illinois

Currents of rushing waters carve the landscape and fill the air with soothing sounds at Black Partridge Forest Preserve in southern Cook County. This 80-acre site crisscrossed by ravines contains riparian forests dominated by sugar maple, basswood, birch, and red, white, and bur oak.

Named for the Potawatomi Indian chief Black Partridge, who traveled through the Chicago Wilderness region into central Illinois, this area was dedicated as the second nature preserve in Illinois in 1965 in order to protect its spring-fed stream. The stream, part of the Des Plaines River system, contains a wide variety of invertebrates, indicating its high quality as habitat for fish, amphibians and reptiles. The rare mottled sculpin — a fish that requires cool, highly oxygenated waters — can be found here.

Although the majority of the preserve is covered by a dense tree canopy, there are small clearings along the way that allow oak saplings to begin their long journey towards the sky. In these canopy breaks, life of all kinds gathers, bird songs are heard, and native woodland and even prairie plants can be found.

Crossing many steep and winding ravines, the trails at Black Partridge are challenging by most standards, but the residents here don't seem to mind. Visitors can see snakes, such as the northern water snake, coiling in between rocks along stream banks, American toads hopping along trails, and downy woodpeckers making forest music and finding lunch. Black Partridge is not a frequently visited preserve, and the surrounding area is largely wooded, so deer encountering humans huff and buck, a rare sight for those used to deer more accustomed to humans.

Just outside the 80-acre preserve, wetland lovers can find a small fen by heading east on Bluff Rd. toward Lemont Rd. If you park along the side of the road at the S curve, you can find a fen 50 feet from the banks of the Des Plaines River. Created by spring water percolating through limestone, the water here is much more basic (alkaline) than other wetlands. This small fen community harbors plants such as turtlehead, prairie cord grass, and more.

— Amelia Taylor