Summary of 2014 Land Conservation in Illinois

Here is a very nice summary provided by Dave Holman.

Folks are returning from one holiday and getting ready for another. Chaos reigns as books for 2014 are closed and initiatives for 2015 begun. The new year is nearly upon us, and what better way to move forward towards bright new horizons than by…looking backwards? Yep. It’s 2014 In (Brief) Review.

Private Land Conservation

• 8% of all conservation easements in the state of Illinois held by nonprofit organizations were established last year. 2014  saw more property in the state placed under a privately-held conservation easement than any other year in history.
• This impressive increase was led by Heartlands Conservancy and the Jo Daviess Conservation Foundation.
  • Heartlands Conservancy continued to demonstrate why it’s one of the preeminent conservation land trusts not only in southwestern Illinois, but in the state, closing on 4 easements, totaling 1,069 acres.
  • The Jo Daviess Conservation Foundation also negotiated 4 easements, totaling 424 acres.
• Through the invaluable support of Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation, Grand Victoria Foundation, private philanthropists, and Viewers Like You, a substantial number of the state’s land trusts and conservation groups made impressive progress over 2014 in acquiring important habitats and valuable wildlife corridors. These organizations (in reverse alphabetical order, because why should TWI always go last?) include:
  • The Wetlands Initiative
    • 423 acres, expanding the Dixon Waterfowl Refuge in Putnam County to 3,131 acres. This property, which buffers the Thomas W. and Elizabeth Moews Dore Seep Nature Preserve and was acquired with support from the Grand Victoria Foundation and the  Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation will  see 136 acres placed in a conservation easement, while TWI will retain ownership of the remaining 296 acres. Lying within a mile of two sites owned by the Putnam County Conservation District and a third property owned by TNC, this acquisition begins piecing together a large regional macrosite.
  • Lake Bluff Open Lands Association
    • 14.2 acres of forest and open field in a conservation easement in eastern Lake County along the shores of Lake Michigan at Crab Tree Farm. Three different nonprofit organizations have been collectively working to preserve this oasis of forest and prairie in the heart of suburban Chicagoland since 1981. This is the 11^th conservation easement put in place at the site, collectively protecting 160 acres.
  • The Conservation Foundation
    • 37.12 acres in a conservation easement in eastern DeKalb County (not two weeks ago!), on the eastern edge of the City of Sycamore. This property, lying along the East Branch of the South Branch of the Kishwaukee River, was acquired by DeKalb County using funding from the FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, which assists local government by providing funding to purchase land lying in floodplains under the condition that it not be developed in the future, thus saving taxpayers the expense of subsidizing the rebuilding of property destroyed during flood events.
    • 2.5 acres acquired in Lombard on behalf of the local park district. TCF subsequently assisted in the passage of a referendum which will allow the park district to in turn acquire the property to expand an adjacent community park.
  • The Nature Conservancy
    • 24.58 acres at Nachusa Grasslands in Ogle County, supported by the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation, expanding western Illinois’ premier tallgrass prairie to a bison-friendly 3,092 acres (with an additional 720 acres protected via conservation easements).
    • 194.4 acres at Kankakee Sands in Kankakee County through numerous acquisitions supported by the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation. TNC’s Kankakee Sands site includes 2,900 acres spread over 40 square miles of southeastern Kankakee County (and that’s not including the work being done across the border in Indiana), and is being stitched together a few scattered parcels at a time over an area with hundreds of individual landowners.
  • Prairie Land Conservancy (Prairie Hills Resource Conservation & Development)
    • 534 acres (yep. 534 acres!) in Fulton County, acquired with invaluable support from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation, this property fills a significant hole in the area between the IDNR’s Banner Marsh State Fish and Wildlife Area and Rice Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area. The project was conceived last year at the annual meeting of the Prairie State Conservation Coalition, when the USFWS requested proposals for suitable projects, the acquisition of which the Service could assist in funding.
  • Land Conservancy of McHenry County
    • 40 acres in a conservation easement to protect a therapeutic equestrian riding center in McHenry County. In conjunction with the easement, the McHenry County Conservation District was able to leverage TLC’s acquisition of the property as the match required to obtain funding to purchase fee simple title to land lying immediately to the south of the easement property. This is what’s known as a partnership, and a fantastic one at that (I know, I know. In this sector we often think the word means “issuing joint press releases or communiques”. Shockingly, according to Google, the actual definition of a partner is “a person who takes part in an undertaking with another or others”. Who knew?). Adding to the already impressive nature of this project, both properties lie within the boundaries of the Hackmatack NWR.
    • 26 acres to expand Yonder Prairie. Acquired with support from the Grand Victoria Foundation and the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation, this buffers and expands a remnant prairie in western McHenry County that TLC has grown from a core of 40 acres in 2008 to 170 acres in public and private ownership in only six years.
  • Land Conservancy of Lake County
    • 0.5 acres to expand the small MAR-Glenn Oaks site.
  • Jo Daviess Conservation Foundation
    • 99 acres to expand the Hanover Bluff macrosite in Jo Daviess County. The property, acquired with support from the Grand Victoria Foundation and the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation, is part of a larger project where five public and private conservation organizations collectively stitch together a 1,455 acre ecological gem containing 3 Nature Preserves and 2 Land and Water Reserves, a site that in turn lies adjacent to 16,000 acres (expanding to 22,000 acres once the U.S. Army finishes remediation work on the shuttered Savanna Army Depot) of the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife Refuge.
    • 25 acres in a conservation easement in western Jo Daviess County along the Mississippi River that preserves the habitat of the Iowa Pleistocene Snail, a species so rare and important that the USFWS has established this crazy quilt of a National Wildlife Refuge to protect it. This easement, acquired with support from the Grand Victoria Foundation provides the first protected habitat for the cold-loving mollusk in Illinois.
    • 211 acres in a conservation easement in western Jo Daviess County, lying just to the south of the Iris and Jack Witkowsky SFWA, and northwest of the Village of Hanover. With a mix of woodlands and open fields, the property provides a variety of habitats in addition to its role as a link between the SFWA and the nearby Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge.
    • 112 acres in a conservation easement in southeastern Jo Daviess County. Dominated by thick woodlands interspersed with former agricultural fields, the easement is part of a patchwork of eased properties in an area of rolling topography.
    • 76 acres of woodland and timber in a conservation easement in far western Jo Daviess County, along the Mississippi River (can’t get much further west than that). Impressively, this easement lies adjacent to a second easement held by JDCF of 149 acres.
  • Heartlands Conservancy
    • 32 acres of a wetland mitigation project in Fayette County, acquired through a partnership with the US Army Corps of Engineers and a local firm.
    • 36 acres in a conservation easement in St. Clair County, further developing a growing trend in a County whose diversity of actors and protection methods are unique in the state.
    • 716 acres, 222 acres and 102 acres in three conservation easement on adjacent properties owned by the same family, in Monroe County. These easements, which encompass a diverse terrain of forest, prairie, river, and agricultural farmland, collectively comprise the third largest easement in the state, and the second largest easement focused on the preservation and enhancement of natural lands.
  • Friends of the Sangamon Valley
    • 6 heavily wooded acres lying along the north side of the Sangamon River in western Christian County, just north of the IDNR’s Sangchris Lake State Resource Area, donated as a life estate.
  • Friends of the Kankakee
    • 7 acres at Kankakee Sands in Iroquois County acquired with support from the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation. This incredibly important landscape has been pieced together by FoK over the course of at least two decades (probably for far longer, but before that time I was in grade school, so I kind of lack the historical memory to do this project justice) through the purchase of vacant housing lots, most less than a quarter acre in size. Today, this nucleus of a future National Wildlife Refuge has grown to 258 acres. One lot at a time.
  • Franklin Creek Preservation Area Committee
    • 22.83 acres in Lee County acquired with support from the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation. Since leading the creation of the Franklin Creek State Natural Area (a singular achievement never before seen nor replicated since), the Committee has continued to both expand the state site and provide valuable buffer by acquiring properties both adjacent and in close proximity to the State Natural Area. This wooded property lies adjacent to both the State Natural Area and land already owned by the Committee.
  • Citizens for Conservation
    • 0.18 acres at Grigsby Prairie in Lake County. This small property was donated by the estate of Ms. Peggy G. Richards who, over the course nearly 35 years donated to CfC 46 acres of former agricultural land in the heart of Barrington. Fulfilling Ms. Richards’ wishes, the organization has steadily restored the property to prairie since work began in 1987 while simultaneously using the land as a learning environment for local elementary schoolchildren.
    • 2.41 acres of wetland at Flint Creek Savanna in Lake County, expanding CFC’s preeminent site to 115 acres.
    • 0.8 acres at Steyermark Woods in Lake County. CFC’s smallest property, the original woodland was acquired from TNC in 1986, and was doubled in size by this acquisition.
  • Barrington Area Conservation Trust
    • 11 acres of soon-to-be former agricultural land in Cook County, on the McHenry County border and just across the street from the Forest Preserve District of Cook County’s Spring Lake Forest Preserve.
• It almost goes without saying, but with support from their members, benefactors, and the Foundations credited elsewhere in this email, almost all of the state’s land trusts are engaged in diverse restoration and land management activities on the properties that they own or manage, alongside invaluable advocacy and capacity building efforts.

Public Land Conservation

• Land acquisition has slowed down quite a bit from its early decade highs, but 2014 saw often small but almost always strategic acquisitions by the Forest Preserves and Conservation Districts in Boone, Champaign, Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, Will, and Winnebago Counties. All were under 200 acres save for those in Winnebago County. The recently renamed Forest Preserves of Winnebago County, among other projects, completed a 544 acre wetland acquisition along the Pecatonica River. This property, which borders the small Two Rivers Forest Preserve to the east and the Natural Land Institute’s 135 acres Ottertail Marsh complex (partially fee owned and partially under a conservation easement) provides extensive habitat and complements the 1,425 acre Sugar River Alder Forest Preserve lying just to the north.
• The Illinois Department of Natural Resources has continued to expand its holdings throughout the state, often with the support and assistance of both Ducks Unlimited and The Nature Conservancy. These sites include:
  • 4,508 acres (yes, you read that right) in Franklin, Jackson, and Williamson Counties, in the south of the state, just east of Carbondale
  • 222 acres added to the deeply impressive and Illinois Nature Preserve recognized Cache River State Natural Area, located even further south in Johnson County. This unique Illinois landscape, which is also a dedicated Illinois Nature Preserve, has been continually developed and expanded by the IDNR, working closely with TNC.
  • 38 acres to create the new Fort Defiance site in Alexander County, which is, erm, even furtherer south!
  • 99 acres of lake added to the appropriately named Chain O’Lakes State Park, in Lake County
  • 62 acres added to Horseshoe Lake/Madison State Park in Madison County, acquired in a transfer from the Department of Transportation
  • 572 acres added to the Mississippi River State Fish and Wildlife Area in Calhoun County, a beautiful group of scattered properties between the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers.
  • 2 acres added to Moraine Hills State Park in McHenry County. Every little bit counts!
  • 1 acre added to Illinois Beach State Park in Lake County. See previous bullet point; it’s all about filling in the holes.
  • 216 acres to expand the Prairie Ridge State Natural Area in Marion County, acquired with the assistance of the Illinois Audubon Society which in turn was made possible by assistance from Grand Victoria Foundation and the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation. Illinois Audubon and the IDNR have long worked together to expand and restore this site, which is home to dozens of state endangered avian species.
  • 100 acres to expand the Sangchris Lake State Resource Area in Christian County. The IDNR owns nearly 3,000 acres at this site, to which is added additional property leased from a local energy firm.
  • 50 acres to expand the 700 acre forest and grassland dominated Wildcat Hollow State Habitat Area in Effingham County.
  • 122 acres to expand the small 85 acre Willow Creek State Habitat Area in Edgar County, acquired with the support of Ducks Unlimited.
• The Illinois Nature Preserves Commission has never ceased in its mission to protect the most ecologically valuable pieces of Illinois’ natural heritage. Over the course of the year, it added 21 new parcels to the system totaling 2,121.7 acres, which, in addition to expanding existing sites also saw the creation of seven all new Nature Preserves and six new Land and Water Reserves. Almost 90% of the newly protected properties were dedicated/registered by nonprofit organizations and private individuals, while the remainder were dedicated/registered by local governments as well as by the IDNR itself.

Natural Areas Restoration and Management

• While 2014 has seen a good amount of restoration work done from one end of the state to the other (special props must go to Ducks Unlimited for its work up and down the Illinois River, especially in and around the Woodford and Sanganois State Fish & Wildlife Areas), there aren’t yet a series of metrics that will enable interested parties and practitioners to assess needs and measure both progress and setbacks. If only there were some sort of…plan…say, focused on the needs of the flora and fauna…the wildlife if you will…of the state of Illinois that could call people to action by laying out such a statewide system of metrics and list of objectives. That could be a really effective organizing mechanism and tool for efficiently allocating resources. It’d be great if such a resource was available when writing this section next year. Just saying.

Top 3 Most Awesome Projects of 2014 (in alphabetical order by organization) 

• Clifftop has, in partnership with the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission, dedicated the 535 acre Fogelpole Cave in Monroe County (acquired in 2013 with invaluable support from Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation and Grand Victoria Foundation) as the Paul Wightman Subterranean Nature Preserve, taking the prize for most impressive land protection project of the year.
  • Fogelpole Cave is the largest karst cave in Illinois and is a fully intact cave ecosystem.
  • The 535 acres acquired by Clifftop surrounds property owned by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, and by itself protects more than 11% of the cave’s recharge area, along with a significant majority of the cave itself. Think about that. With this single purchase and subsequent Nature Preserve dedication, Clifftop has protected 11% of the landmass that in any way affects an entire ecosystem, and that’s saying nothing of the protection of the cave itself. All of this in Illinois of all places. How incredible is that?
  • Over 70% of the 400 acres that are in agricultural production will be restored to native prairie in 2015.
  • The NP is named in honor of Rev. Paul Wightman, who has been documenting and researching the cave for twice as long as I have walked this Earth. Seriously. The guy is amazing.
• The Illinois Department of Natural Resources has announced the planned acquisition of ~284 acres in the Lake Calumet area south of Chicago to create the core of the new Millennium Reserve, a project area that has been nurtured and advocated to great effect by the Donnelley Foundation, and is an unsurpassed example of engagement with the local community.
  • As an added bonus, in the process of preparing for the acquisition, IDNR staff found two conservation easements near the project area that most of the Department was unaware of, and I happened across a third pretty much unknown DNR-held easement as part of a separate project. Taken together, these four properties provide ~727 acres of potential green space in a long-neglected corner of the urban landscape, providing a clear example of the Department’s commitment to serving the citizens of the state’s largest and most dynamic city.
• The Nature Conservancy has introduced a herd of 20 bison at Nachusa Grasslands in Ogle County. In so doing, TNC once again leads the way in both land restoration and management, returning the totemic species of the prairie to the prairie state.
  • This is the first conservation herd of bison in the state of Illinois, and is projected to grow to 70-110 animals. Eat your heart out Midewin!
  • The bison come from Wind Cave National Park, and have only a very small number of cattle genes, making them some of the most genetically pure members of the species in existence. This sets the herd apart from existing commercial herds.
    • “Wait a minute David.” (I hear some readers of this email saying) “Very small number? TNC’s website says that those bison have no history of cattle cross-breeding and are the most genetically pure and diverse specimens in the world.”
      • Unfortunately the website’s mistaken on these two counts. It happens to the best of us. As anyone who’s worked with me can attest, I’m usually wrong at least five times a day. Doesn’t change the fact that it’s still a really cool project, and serves as an inspiration to the entire state conservation community.
    • “The website’s wrong?”
      • Yep. In 2010 or 2011, bison from Wind Cave underwent Single Nucleotide Polymorphism analyses, which revealed the presence of previously unknown cattle introgression. To the best of my knowledge, there are only two (confirmed) genetically pure bison herds in the world today. The first is found at Elk Island National Park in Alberta. The second, which is populated by animals from said Elk Island National Park, is found at American Prairie Reserve in eastern Montana (which is the site of what is objectively the single most ambitious and awe-inspiring conservation project underway in North America today). The Yellowstone herd is also very likely be cattle gene-free, but they haven’t yet been tested.

Changes at the Top

• In 2013, it seemed like every other leader of both the private and public conservation organizations lying north of I-80 was retiring or moving on to pursue new opportunities. 2014 wasn’t nearly as frenetic, with only four changes in leadership.
  • Kevin Bennett has resigned as the Executive Director of The Nature Institute in Godfrey.
  • Jason Petit has moved on from the role of Executive Director of the Kendall County Forest Preserve District, with David Guritz taking on the role.
  • Jim McConoughey has moved on from Conserve Lake County in Grayslake. Keith Grey has taken on the role of interim Executive Director. Everyone say “Hi” to Keith!
  • Karen Yancey is moving to beautiful northern Wisconsin, and so has left Barrington Area Conservation Trust. The role of Executive Director has been filled by the always impressive Lisa Woolford. Hi Lisa!

 Did You Know?

• There are 53 501(c)3 environmental nonprofits that hold property or conservation easements and are currently working in Illinois.
• Lake County contains more Nature Preserves, and has more acreage in the Nature Preserves system than any other County in the state. Take that Cook County.
• The five largest land trusts in Illinois on the basis of land owned or under easement are 1) The Nature Conservancy (19,079 acres) 2) Natural Land Institute (5,343 acres) 3) Jo Daviess County Conservation Foundation (4,429 acres) 4) Openlands (2,574 acres), 5) Sangamon Conservancy Trust (2,557 acres)
• The oft-quoted statistic that Illinois retains less than 1/10 of 1% of its native prairie is drawn from the original Illinois Natural Areas Inventory report of 1978, written by Jack White.

 There are a multitude of additional projects, initiatives, and plans that I could delve into, and I’ve barely touched on the accomplishments of the state’s Forest Preserve and Conservation Districts, but to do so would risk turning this synopsis into a dissertation, something many recipients of said synopsis know that I’m prone to do. So with that, I’ll close by simply saying that I look forward to seeing what’s in store for 2015!

Best Regards,

Dave