Open Space Protection Grows in 2002
through Acquisitions
Using revenue from a 2001 voter-approved
tax increase, the McHenry
County Conservation District (MCCD) was able in 2002
to purchase the 168-acre Fox Bluff Conservation Area along
the Fox River in Cary, a site slated for development.
The lush, hilly parcel harbors native orchids and cold
springs.
The district also protected a high-quality
mesic forest and one of McHenry County's only known populations
of state-endangered nodding trillium through the acquisition
of 54 acres of Lind Woods, near the village of Greenwood.
Another 2002 MCCD acquisition is adjacent
to Glacial
Park in Ringwood and protects a 15-acre high-quality
sedge meadow as well as almost one mile of the North Branch
of Nippersink Creek. This grade-A stream is home to McHenry's
last known population of rainbow mussels. In 2002, the
MCCD acquired 1,775 acres of open space.
In a significant purchase last year,
the Kane County
Forest Preserve District acquired 80 acres of high-quality
prairie adjacent to Meissner Forest Preserve that supports
a variety of unique orchids. This site is also home to
the only stand of Indian paintbrush in the county. The
district also expanded the Burnidge
Forest Preserve by 85 acres of cropland buffer, which
is being converted to prairie. This expansion includes
Tyler Creek, which provides habitat for a number of rare
mussels. Kane County acquired a little more than 1,200
acres in 2002.
Last fall, the Forest
Preserve District of DuPage County took another step
toward its goal of establishing continuity among its preserves
with the purchase of a 63-acre parcel adjacent to the
Springbrook
Prairie Forest Preserve in Naperville. Springbrook
Prairie, the district's third-largest preserve, consists
mostly of open fields with wetlands. The pied-billed grebe,
least bittern, and yellow- headed blackbird, all known
to breed in DuPage County, depend on this habitat to survive.
DuPage acquired 191 acres in 2002.
Two parcels totaling 167 acres were
added to the 16,840-acre Midewin
National Tallgrass Prairie last year thanks to CorLands,
the Conservation
Fund, the U.S. Forest
Service, and the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers. Both parcels were slated
for residential development. The 77-acre Morgan Woods
is the first property upstream from Midewin along Prairie
Creek. The creek's eroding streambank contributes to sedimentation
downstream and can now be stabilized. The 90-acre Russel
property has been in agricultural use.
— Jennifer Tang
