Story By Don McFallPhotos By DNR Staff

The Natural Areas Acquisition Fund is protecting Illinois’ crowninghabitat gems—and creating recreational opportunities.

Necks crane to peer into theupper branches of giganticoaks and sycamores in oldgrowth forests. Ancientcypress swamps look, and

feel, like something out of a ghost story.Wildflowers dot the tall-grass prairie withcolor as far as the eye can see. Thenoisy banter of primeval-soundingherons fills the air as they jockey withneighbors in crowded treetop rookeries.Thousands of acres of sloughs span thebottomland, a wondrous sight from highatop a limestone cliff.

Some travel to the four corners of theUnited States in search of these magicalplaces, but each year more people dis-cover that there’s some place new toexplore closer to home—Illinois’ naturalareas. Those willing to find and hike Illi-nois’ natural areas aren’t disappointed,and first-time visitors are amazed afterdiscovering the natural wonders of our

Banking on Rarities

6 / OutdoorIllinois December 2006

home state.The Department of Natural

Resources (DNR) has a plan and afunding source to protect these naturalareas, to buffer them from incompatibledevelopment, restore them where nec-essary and open them up to the publicso visitors can enjoy them for years tocome. Thanks to a 1989 Illinois GeneralAssembly initiative creating the NaturalAreas Acquisition Fund (NAAF), to datemore than 21,000 acres of woods,prairies and wetlands—scattered aroundthe state at 64 different natural areas in43 of Illinois’ 102 counties—have beenacquired and maintained.

Since January 2003, the NAAF hasbeen used to acquire—from landownerson a willing seller basis—33 tracts ofland at 28 of the finest remaining naturalareas in Illinois. Totaling 3,835 acres,these tracts include everything frommarshes in northeastern Illinois tocypress swamps in southern Illinois.

Apple River conubium santet cathe

dras. Umbraculi imputat vix adfa

bilis oratori, quamqua.

There aren’t too many natural areasleft in Illinois, and the ones we havetend to be on the small side, so a signifi-cant amount of the land acquired withNAAF is for the purpose of enlargingand buffering natural areas already inDNR ownership. These buffer lands,often marginal farmland or former pas-ture, are reforested, planted to prairiegrasses or restored to wetland. Withtime, the buffer lands will develop intogood habitat and improve the likelihoodthat the natural area will survive unim-paired well into the future.

Where Does the Money forNAAF Come From?

The NAAF comes from a fee on thetransfer of real estate in Illinois. When a

Improving Water Qualitywith NAAF

Every site that is selected for acquisi-tion using NAAF contains a high-qualitynatural area listed on the Illinois NaturalAreas Inventory. It’s rare, however, thata tract of land acquired with NAAFdoesn’t provide other conservation andpublic benefits. Advancing the state’sclean water goals is a good example ofa NAAF “two-fer.” Thousands of acres ofwetlands have been protected andenhanced through NAAF. These wet-

person or corporation buys real estate inIllinois, they pay a fee of $1.50 per$1,000 paid for the property. For exam-ple, the buyer of a $100,000 house paysa one-time real estate transfer fee of$150. Money generated by this fee isdivided four ways: 50 cents to countygoverments, 50 cents for affordablehousing assistance, 35 cents for the DNROpen Space Land Acquisition and Devel-opment (OSLAD) grant program and 15cents for the Natural Areas AcquisitionFund. The NAAF is used for “the acquisi-tion, preservation and stewardship of nat-ural areas, including habitat for endan-gered and threatened species, high quali-ty natural communities, wetlands andother areas with unique or unusual natur-al heritage qualities.”

DNR’s Division of Realty is responsi-ble for all aspects of acquiring the land.

December 2006 OutdoorIllinois / 7

Red Wing Slough fragilis zothecas

conubium santet oratori, utcunque

perspicax chirographi miscere.

Wolf Road Prairie incredibiliter

adlaudabilis syrtes iocari fragilis

saburre. Oratori libere insectat.

The Division has a professional staff ofland appraisers, surveyors and negotia-tors who work with landowners toacquire natural areas, as well as stateparks, hunting areas and bike trails. Allacquisitions are on a willing-seller basisand at fair-market value. The Division isworking on acquiring 10 natural areatracts this year, totaling about 900 acres.

Stewardship of NaturalAreas

Recognizing that it doesn’t makesense to buy a piece of land if you can’ttake care of it, 10 percent of the NAAFis set aside each year for stewardshipprojects on natural areas and naturepreserves. Typical stewardship projectsare exotic species removal, prescribedburning in prairies and woods, andhydrologic restoration in wetlands andstreams. This year, 49 projects benefit-ing natural areas throughout the statewere funded with NAAF.

lands improve water quality by filteringwastes from runoff. They reduce theseverity of floods by storing and gradu-ally releasing flood waters, and theyrecharge groundwater. Acquisition oflarge wetlands, such as Cache Riverand Black Crown Marsh, assures impor-tant wetland functions will continueindefinitely. Many acres of marginalfarmland and farmed wetlands havebeen acquired to buffer and enlargehigh-quality wetlands. The stewardshipportion of NAAF allows DNR to restorewetlands on marginal lands by filling inditches, breaking field tiles and restoringwetland vegetation.

Protected but Open forRecreation

More than 17,000 acres of landacquired through the NAAF are open forpublic hunting, fishing and hiking. Acqui-sition also provides river access points,protection for archaeological resources,connects bike trail, and creates studysites for college and high school biologyclasses. Protecting a natural area andproviding a range of public uses arerarely incompatible goals. The key is asound land management plan, and DNRprepares one for each acquired tract.

DNR is committed to maintaining thesignificant natural features on the landacquired with NAAF. Most of the land

acquired with the fund has been regis-tered as a Land and Water Reserve withthe Illinois Nature Preserves Commis-sion (INPC). INPC and DNR are workingin concert to protect and maintain theoutstanding natural features for whichthese areas were acquired, and makingthem available for wildlife observation,hunting, fishing and development of atrail system as permitted by the Landand Water Reserves system.

Exploring the Natural AreasA quick and easy way to become

acquainted with newly acquired areas isto visit the DNR Web site at

www.dnr.state.il.us/INPC/NPdir.htm.Click on a part of the state you’d like toexplore for a detailed description of thearea and driving directions. PrairieRidge State Natural Area has an excel-lent Web site at www.dnr.state.il.us/orc/prairieridge.

After your virtual tour, a visit to theactual site is in order. Cache River StateNatural Area has an outstanding visitor’scenter, including a boardwalk through acypress swamp and several miles oftrails. A call ahead is always wise, espe-cially to visit newly purchased lands,such as those at Moraine Hills StatePark in McHenry or Redwing Slough(associated with Chain O’Lakes StatePark in Spring Grove).

Although the visitor’s facilities atmany of these sites are minimal (usuallyjust a small parking lot and a trail sys-tem), a few minutes after leaving yourcar you’ll be richly rewarded as youexplore some of Illinois’ rarest and mostpristine lands.

8 / OutdoorIllinois December 2006

Protecting Endangered Species Habitat with NAAF

The key to ensuring Illinois endangered species don’t become extinct and that theybegin to recover is habitat protection. DNR is using the NAAF to acquire critical habitat

for a number of endangered species. Sandhill crane, black tern, yellow-headed blackbirdand king rail are being protected at Redwing Slough (Lake County) and Black Crown Marsh(McHenry County). Greater prairie-chicken, upland sandpiper, short-earedowl and loggerhead shrike nest atPrairie Ridge State Natural Area(Jasper and Marion counties). Snowyegret and black-crowned night heroncan be seen at the Alorton HeronRookery (St. Clair County). Bird-voicedtree frog, big-eared bat and red-shoul-dered hawk thrive at sites along theCache River (Johnson and Pulaskicounties).

Endangered species often requirea very specific habitat type to survive, such as a tamarack bog or sand prairie. When thehabitat type, or natural community, is itself extremely rare, the animals and plants depen-dant on it decline. DNR uses the NAAF money to target acquisition of rare habitat typesseldom present in the state parks or county forest preserves.

Don McFall is the Natural Areas Acqui-sition program manager with the DNROffice of Realty and EnvironmentalPlanning.

Fults Hill Prairie conubium santet

cathedras. Umbraculi imputat vix

adfabilis oratori, quamqua.

Alorton Heron RookeryAlorton Heron Rookery