Liberty Prairie Reserve is exceptional for many reasons. It’s a big, public-private vision to protect nearly 5,800 acres of land in the heart of Lake County, Illinois, as open space. To date, nearly 60% has been protected by donation, acquisition or easement. The reserve also harbors three dedicated Illinois Nature Preserves. Today, I visited all three.
Fittingly, Liberty Prairie Reserve is anchored by Liberty Prairie Nature Preserve. There are no developed trails in this particular Nature Preserve, although a regional bike trail does run alongside at least a part of it.
George Fell argued strenuously against trails in dedicated Nature Preserves. he had a point that because so little natural land remained in the Prairie State, he was unwilling to give up a single square inch more. In the case of Liberty Prairie Reserve, the case for limited public access and no added infrastructure is particularly apt because it is among the rarest of the rare: it was never plowed and only lightly grazed, leaving intact the soils, the topography, the diversity of habitat types — including graminoid fen, sedge meadow and marsh — and a rich mix of more than 150 species of plants, and some rare fauna, as well.
So, too, am I OK with the fact that the main entrance to Almond Marsh Nature Preserve is closed to the public today. In order to minimize disturbance to the adjacent rookery, the parking area is open only Saturday mornings April through July. A small price to pay to maintain a healthy colony of herons. (Anyway, I’ve been to Almond Marsh many times and yesterday — through my camera lens –I got a close up peek at some of the fledgling herons during the regular open visitation hours.)
In the adjacent Oak Openings Nature Preserve, there is a narrow footpath spur into Almond Marsh. But the mosquitoes along the heavily wooded path got the better of me and so I remained on the main trail that runs through wide open space of Oak Openings.
Yes, the trail through the preserve. I empathize with George Fell not wanting wide trails through Nature Preserves, but I have to admit they are kind of nice. The crushed gravel trail through Oak Openings is busy with lots of Sunday morning bikers and joggers. But there is plenty of room for all to enjoy this exceptional landscape, inclusive of prairie, wetlands, woodlands and savanna.
The original Illinois land surveyors back in the early- to mid-1800s tended to use the terms “savanna,” “openings,” and “barrens” interchangeably. Today, there are technical differences, but common among them is a combination of prairie understory and open canopy woods, typically oaks.
There is a lot of restoration underway at this site , including a major effort to reclaim monoculture corn and soybean fields for richly diverse communities of native plants and animals. Some of this reclamation/restoration work is occurring on land previously owned by the Donnelley family.
I’m incredibly fortunate to work for the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation. (As a reminder, this blog reflects my personal views and not those of the foundation) Its founders, Gay and Dot, were instrumental in the establishment of Liberty Prairie Reserve, an ethic they passed on to their children. The Donnelleys helped protect some of the first lands within Liberty Prairie Reserve. Now those lands are being restored to their native habitats by Conserve Lake County and Libertyville Township Open Space District, and have been formally dedicated as buffer lands to two of the three Liberty Prairie Nature Preserves.
As memorialized on the Conserve Lake County website, Strachan Donnelley, founder of the Center for Humans and Nature, had this to say about protecting our natural lands:
“How practically can human communities and individuals fit and live well within nature? We can work unflaggingly to promote effective cultures of conservation and help to spread their influence to an ever widening circle of communities regional, national, and global. Is there really any other moral and civic alternative?”
