Exploring Nature in Illinois: A Field Guide to the Prairie State
Michael Jeffords
Language: English
Pages: 280
ISBN: 0252079906
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
From the colorful variety of birds at War Bluff Valley Audubon Sanctuary to the exposed bedrock and cliff faces of Apple River Canyon, Exploring Nature in Illinois will inspire readers to explore wonders hidden from urban sprawl and cultivated farmland. Maps and descriptions help travelers access even hard-to-find sites while a wealth of detail and photography offers nature-lovers insights into the flora, fauna, and other aspects of vibrant settings and ecosystems. The authors also include diary entries describing their own impressions of and engagement with the sites.
A unique and much-needed reference, Exploring Nature in Illinois will entertain and enlighten hikers, cyclers, students and scouts, morning walkers, weekend drivers, and anyone else seeking to get back to nature in the Prairie State.
structures. It is a place to roam freely on the nearly six-mile loop trail and experience a part of Illinois that largely ceased to exist as the great urban centers of northeastern Illinois grew. The mosaic of expansive oak savannas, tallgrass prairie, a winding loop of Mill Creek, and interior wetlands provides myriad opportunities for wildlife and nature viewing. The walk is easy, along a paved trail, with bridges, boardwalks, and an elevated viewing platform that allows visitors to concentrate
the Illinois landscape during and after this period, they tilted the balance from forest to prairie and savanna. In areas where the forests received a measure of protection from fires (on the lee side of streams, on slopes, or in areas too wet to burn), the trees persisted, often in isolated prairie groves. Here the tree and understory diversity remained intact, and when the first Europeans settled in central Illinois, they noted these unique groves and often settled in them. The 1879 history of
eastern edge, and further access may be granted. Visit the site headquarters on the campus of Shawnee Community College for more information. Ancient bald cypress trees Greater white-fronted geese at Bellrose Nesting barn owl at Bellrose Large giant cane thicket in fall Hickory Bottoms If you enjoy a primeval-looking forest that offers large, columnar trees, a multitude of cypress knees along the winding channel of Cypress Creek, and an assortment of little things—southern leopard frogs,
berries decorate the forest floor. The unique French's shooting star occurs here in some numbers. The species, first identified by Southern Illinois University entomologist George Hazen French in the early part of the last century, lives only at the driplines under sandstone ledges. Here the soil is perpetually moist, and this diminutive member of the shooting stars usually occurs in rows that reflect the outline pattern of the cliff above. The species blooms in April and May. Goldenseal in
Canada geese in swamp American lotus flower Fall here is unique, as the cypress are deciduous conifers, and before they lose their needles, they turn a glorious golden-yellow, creating a scene of southern splendor on crisp, blue-sky days. As noted above, visiting here in winter features solitude, the decorative boles of the cypress reflected in the gunmetal grays and blues of the quiet waters, and the birds—masses of birds. Located in the most southern tip of Illinois, just a few miles north