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Fall
2001
A
ten-year restoration effort of this former pastureland and
tree farm has brought back a variety of native plants
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| McHenry
County, Illinois |
If
you fantasize about discovering new wild places, Silver
Creek Conservation Area is for you. Since it opened in March,
2001, this brand new site belonging to the McHenry County
Conservation District near Cary in northeastern Illinois
is still too young to attract many visitors despite its
sweeps of great angelica crowned by towering 100+ year-old
bur oaks.
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DIRECTIONS
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To
Silver Creek Conservation Area: Take I-94/294 north
from Chicago to Rte. 176, go west 15 miles to the
stoplight at Roberts Rd. in Island Lake. Turn south
(left) to Rawson Bridge Rd. east (right).
To Prairie View Conservation Center: Head east (left)
from the Silver Creek Conservation Area parking lot
1.5 miles to Roberts Rd. Turn left on Roberts Rd.,
drive 2.5 miles to Rte. 176, turn left and drive 3
miles to Buhl Rd. on the left. Take Buhl to Behan
Rd., drive southeast. 9 miles.
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Part
of the Oakwood Hills complex, a 1,000-acre preserve including
Silver Creek and Hickory Grove on the southeast and the
Prairieview Education Center to the north, the reserve was
born years ago on farms stretching along the Fox River,
from pastures near Crystal Lake, to a tree farm on the southeast
where you’ll spot lonely rows of sugar maples marching
in stiff precision toward the Fox River. In 1999, the Conservation
District began a 10-year restoration project by removing
non-native sedges and buckthorns from the broad wetlands
surrounding Silver Creek in the center of this scenic area.
After pulling into the parking area off Rawson Bridge Road
in Cary, grab a map to guide your brief tour on foot or
cross country skis past virgin oaks, shagbark hickories,
and black cherry trees and sweeps of New England asters
and sawtooth sunflowers in late summer. You may spot egrets,
mallards, teal, and nesting sandhill cranes before you look
skyward for the heron or redtail hawks soaring overhead.
At quiet dawn or dusk, look for beaver and muskrat bustling
through the fens.
If this taste of wilderness appeals to you, head east to
the Prairieview Education Center in Crystal Lake. Once the
home of wealthy residents, the Center was opened in 1999
to centralize services to the county. It occupies a 280-acre
prairie and savanna on the northeastern boundary of the
conservation area.
There’s a grand view from the upstairs windows overlooking
Silver Creek to the southeast. Try an ambling hike through
little bluestem, sideoats grama, prairie dropseed, and other
native grasses planted in the spring of 2001. Start your
walk on the brand new three-mile trail through the savanna
restoration to the river where sunflowers nod near the water’s
edge. With luck, glimpse a red or gray fox digging grubs
for dinner or a coyote or badger stalking beneath Joe Pye
weed or cottonwoods. Spring will bring a spate of prairie
violets,
blue-eyed grass, fringed puccoon, May apple, and plumed
avens.
“A lot of 4th and 5th graders did a great job this
spring restoring the savanna by cutting brush and pulling
garlic mustard with the Mighty Acorns school groups projects,”
said Deb Chapman, education service manager. “It was
gratifying to start the work of returning the area to its
natural state.”
Neither site permits horses or bikes; both offer picnic
areas, drinking water, and restrooms, and permit cross-country
skiing. Pets must be leashed. For more information, call
(815) 338-6223 or visit www.mccdistrict.org.
—
Barbara Phillips
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2008 Chicago Wilderness Magazine, Inc.
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