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| Land ManagementPreserving The Land We Have |
| The purpose of the District's Land Management Program is to preserve the diversity of native flora and fauna through the protection, maintenance, restoration or reconstruction of native ecosystem types. Most conservationists recognize that protecting ecosystems by acquiring land that would otherwise be developed or used for other human needs is not enough; some form of management is necessary to maintain the natural features that make a particular preserve worth protecting in the first place. This is accomplished by seeking to maintain or restore processes that historically influenced the extent, structure and species composition of natural communities prior to settlement, or through use of currently accepted policies and practices that best approximate these processes. |
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| Ecosystems within the District are managed to preserve, maintain and enhance biological diversity. We seek to sustain biodiversity at various District preserves through use of sound policy, process and procedure that is based on sound tenets of conservation biology and accepted management practice. Ultimately, land managers must answer two questions: 1) Which natural features are the most significant to protect? 2) What type(s) of activities are necessary in order to maintain and sustain these features over time? The first step is to develop plans with clear goals and objectives that indicate what and how a preserve will be managed. The second step is to implement management, evaluate the results and adjust strategies or actions accordingly relative to stated goals and objectives. This is known as adaptive management.
The most commonly used land management activities include plant control, planting, wildlife control and prescription fire. Control of exotic or invasive plant species may be required when they threaten to irreversibly alter the composition and structure of desirable native ecosystem types. Most plant control work requires cutting or pulling, and selective application of herbicides to prevent re-growth. Sowing of seed and planting of potted or bare root plants increase species diversity and restore community structure to areas that have been degraded by invasive plant species or other past disturbances and land uses. Some species of wildlife such as beaver or deer may require actions to reduce their numbers when evidence indicates they may irreversibly alter desirable natural features if control is not implemented, or if there are impacts on adjacent private lands. Finally, prescription fires are used to maintain particular ecosystem types such as prairie and oak savanna. |
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The District currently owns and manages nearly 15,000 acres. Approximately 20% of this (roughly 3000 acres) is under some form of active maintenance or restoration and includes: Braidwood Dunes & Savanna Nature Preserve, Sand Ridge Savanna Nature Preserve, Thorn Creek Woods Nature Preserve, Raccoon Grove Nature Preserve, Goodenow Grove Nature Preserve, Messenger Woods Nature Preserve, Hickory Creek Barrens Nature Preserve, Lockport Prairie Nature Preserve, Romeoville Prairie Nature Preserve, Lake Renwick Nature Preserve, Vermont Cemetery Nature Preserve, Forked Creek Preserve, McKinley Woods Forest Preserve, the Rock Run Preserve System, Keepataw Forest Preserve, and Old Plank Road Trail. |
| Our efforts are focused on sites containing or buffering the highest levels of biological diversity and ecological integrity in our preserve system. Many of these sites are recognized by the state as having the best examples of prairie, forest, savanna, barrens, and wetland ecosystems remaining in Illinois, and have been dedicated state nature preserves. Additional areas are managed for specific natural resource purposes: for example, flood control at Sauk Trail Preserve, fisheries and wildlife habitat at Monee Reservoir and DuPage River Preserve, and beaver control at Spring Creek and Plum Creek Preserves.
Funding is available in the District's Capital Improvement Program, approved by Will County voters in April 1999, to expand the District's restoration program on existing preserves, as well as to initiate projects on properties currently being acquired.
The District has a year-round, two-person management crew to coordinate and implement many of the management tasks. Additional seasonal staff is hired during the summer months to augment this work. District staff work hand in hand with volunteers, who have worked at various preserves for over 15 years clearing brush, collecting seeds, planting, monitoring plants and animals, and prescribed burning. Volunteers are essential to managing and restoring our county's natural areas and wild places.
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