Lake County Acquires New Preserve Lands

In January, the Lake County Forest Preserves' (LCFP) purchase of a 180-acre parcel and a neighboring 40-acre parcel combined to create the new Nippersink Preserve in Round Lake. Both parcels are listed on the Illinois Natural Areas Inventory. Five threatened and endangered species have been identified there so far, including the beaked sedge, pied-billed grebe, common moorhen, black tern and yellow-headed blackbird.

On March 15, the LCFP Board approved the purchase of a new 130-acre forest preserve, known as the YMCA-Camp Duncan East Property, along the eastern shore of Fish Lake near Volo. The new preserve protects an unusual habitat for little bluestem, located on a marl flat that occurs near Fish Lake. Little bluestem grass usually grows in dry prairies, but here it grows in a wetland. Marl is calcium carbonate, a clay-like substance that formed thousands of years ago.

The purchase of a 24.2-acre lot and a 120-acre lot adjoining the 974-acre Grant Woods Forest Preserve near Lake Villa and Fox Lake will create a contiguous 1,118-acre preserve, the third largest forest preserve in Lake County.

The board also approved an agreement with Lake Villa Township for a conservation deed restriction on 8.8 acres that the township will buy, adjacent to the new forest preserve lands. Lake County now has 24,014 acres of forest preserves.