* Documentary Material Enclosed
Item 1: Call to Order, Roll Call, and Introduction of Attendees
Item 2:* Adoption of Agenda
Item 3:* Approval of Minutes of 147th Meeting, May 2, 1995
Item 4:* Next Meeting Schedule
Item 5: Dr. George Rabb, Director of Brookfield Zoo
Item 6: NPC Staff Report
REPORT
Carolyn Grosboll
Nature Preserves Commission
Item 7: DOC Staff Report
REPORT
Carl Becker
Dept. of Conservation, Division of Natural Heritage
Item 8: Public Comment Period (3 minutes per person)
Item 9: Election of Officers - INPC Nominating Committee Report
REPORT
Chair, Nominating Committee
Nature Preserves Commission
Item 10: Election of Consultants
REPORT
Brian Anderson
Nature Preserves Commission
Current Consultants:
Dr. Robert F. Betz
Bill Jacobs
Bruce Boyd
Dr. Alfred C. Koelling
Dr. James Brown
Albert S. Pyott
Marilyn Campbell
Dr. Kenneth Robertson
Kenneth V. Fiske
Valerie Spale
Item 11:* Proposal to Continue Rock Climbing at Sentinel Nature Preserve, Mississippi Palisades State Park
Upon the dedication of Sentinel Nature Preserve, the ACCESS fund, a national rock-climbing advocacy group, funded a study of the effects of climbing on the nature preserve. The Mississippi Palisades Climbing Coalition (MPCC) policed the closure of parts of the nature preserve to provide a control for the scientific studies. MPCC now proposes a climbing plan based on the results of those studies that would keep the Sentinel, proper, open to climbing.
| REPORT Randy Heidorn Nature Preserves Commission | ACTION TO BE CONSIDERED Commission Approval |
Item 12:* Proposal to Protect Heron Pond/Little Black Slough Nature Preserve from the effects of Cache River Entrenchment
The Heron Pond and all of the wetland resources protected in this preserve are threatened by changes in the hydrology of the Cache River resulting from man-made changes instituted over the last century to control flooding and promote agriculture. These changes in the flow of the river have caused the river to cut deeply into its channel and promoted bank erosion. The combined impacts of this entrenchment and changes in the watershed of the Upper Cache are threatening the integrity of the natural levee that separates the river and Heron Pond. Piping of water through weaknesses in the levee has aggravated this problem. Left unchecked, Heron Pond will be drained with the resulting loss of this wetland resource.
| REPORT Randy Heidorn, Nature Preserves Commission Bill McClain, IDNR Division of Natural Heritage | ACTION TO BE CONSIDERED Nature Preserves Commission Approval |
Item 13:* Proposal to Construct a Road Along the Edge of, and within, Brookville Lutheran Cemetery Prairie Nature Preserve
The Brookville Lutheran Cemetery Association is requesting permission to build an access road along the nature preserve boundary to allow vehicle access to the developed part of the cemetery and the southerly new addition.
| REPORT John Alesandrini Nature Preserves Commission | ACTION TO BE CONSIDERED Nature Preserves Commission Approval |
Item 14:* Winnebago County -- Registration of Stone Bridge Reserve as an Illinois Registered Land and Water Reserve
Roscoe Township proposes to register a 3.25 mile stretch of railroad ROW and an adjacent 2-acre parcel as a land and water reserve. These holdings, totalling 54 acres, possess 0.4 acres of grade A and 15.6 acres of grade C or better prairie and a population of the state-listed threatened kitten tails.
| REPORT John Alesandrini Nature Preserves Commission | ACTION TO BE CONSIDERED Final Approval for Registration |
Item 15:* Cook County -- Addition of Nature Preserve to Paintbrush Prairie, Dedication
The Nature Conservancy proposes to dedicate an 8.0-acre tract as an addition to Paintbrush Prairie. The Illinois Nature Preserves Commission conferred preliminary approval for dedication of Paintbrush Prairie as an Illinois Nature Preserve at its 145th Meeting, October 24, 1994 (Resolution #1248). Paintbrush Prairie is part of an archipelago of prairies commonly referred to as the Indian Boundary Prairies. Paintbrush Prairie was conferred preliminary approval for dedication because of the extant high-quality prairie at that site, its relative large size (60 acres in two different parcels), its juxtaposition within the Indian Boundary Prairies, and because the site supports two state-listed threatened plant species. The listed plants include the Early Fen Sedge (Carex crawei) and Eared False Foxglove (Tomanthera auriculata), which is also a candidate for federal listing. Dedication of this 8.0-acre tract will preserve surviving prairie that spans two parcels conferred preliminary approval at the Commission's 145th meeting. Further, this addition to Paintbrush Prairie is consistent with good preserve design considerations and tenets of landscape ecology.
| REPORT Steven Byers Nature Preserves Commission | ACTION TO BE CONSIDERED Preliminary Approval for Dedication |
Item 16:* Cook County -- Palatine Prairie, Dedication
Palatine Prairie is a 7.5-acre prairie characteristic of the "swell and swale" topography that once encompassed much of the Morainal Section of the Morainal Division of northeastern Illinois. Because of the moisture gradients associated with almost imperceptible differences in topography, five natural plant communities occur at Palatine Prairie. Over 100 native plant species have been recorded from these plant communities, including the White Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium candidum). Palatine Prairie was included on the Illinois Natural Areas Inventory (#856) because of the presence of this endangered species. Palatine Prairie is owned in part by the Palatine Park District (2.5 acres) and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (5.0 acres). Both owners have expressed support for dedication of Palatine Prairie as an Illinois Nature Preserve.
| REPORT Steven Byers Nature Preserves Commission | ACTION TO BE CONSIDERED Preliminary Approval for Dedication |
Item 17:* Lake County -- Addition of Buffer to Skokie River Nature Preserve, Dedication
A 12.5-acre parcel of land is proposed for dedication as nature preserve buffer to the Skokie River Nature Preserve located in Lake County, Illinois. The proposal to dedicate Skokie River Nature Preserve approved at the Commission's 134th Meeting (Resolution 1106) called for the linkages between major high-quality sections of the preserve to "be expanded through dedication of adjacent lands as buffer and improved by natural community restoration." Five additional tracts, (Resolution numbers 1210, 1211, 1212, 1240, and 1263), totalling 13.5 acres, have been granted final approval as nature preserve buffer. This proposal is consistent with the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission's recommendation to further buffer Skokie River Nature Preserve from incompatible land uses.
| REPORT Steven Byers Nature Preserves Commission
Stephen Christy | ACTION TO BE CONSIDERED Preliminary Approval for Dedication |
Item 18:* Kane County -- Almon Underwood Prairie Nature Preserve, Dedication
The Forest Preserve District of Kane County, in accordance with the wishes of former owner Bernice Meredith Lakin, proposes to dedicate 14 acres as the Almon Underwood Prairie Nature Preserve. The Almon Underwood Prairie was included on the Illinois Natural Areas Inventory (#1412) for its extant high quality prairie. This proposed preserve, which includes two acres of high-quality dry gravel prairie and 12 acres of buffer to be restored to prairie, represents approximately 10.9% (2 of 18.4 acres) of the total amount of this type of prairie known to survive in the entire state. The Almon Underwood Prairie is also the northwestern terminus for the Kaneville Esker, a significant geological feature identified on the Illinois Natural Areas Inventory. The proposed Almon Underwood Prairie was granted preliminary approval for dedication at the Commission's 147th Meeting, May 2, 1995 (Resolution #1270).
| REPORT Steven Byers Nature Preserves Commission | ACTION TO BE CONSIDERED Final Approval for Dedication |
Item 19:* Kendall Co.-- Yorkville Prairie Nature Preserve, Dedication
Yorkville Prairie is a 26-acre wet-mesic prairie remnant located in the floodplain of the Fox River. The remnant contains 93% of the wet-mesic prairie remaining in the Grand Prairie Section of the Grand Prairie Natural Division. Approximately 11 acres is owned by the Illinois Department of Conservation. The remaining 15 acres is privately owned and received preliminary approval for dedication at the 115th Meeting (Resolution 954) as Kleronomos Prairie. Yorkville Prairie received preliminary approval for dedication as a nature preserve and the Commission's 135th Meeting (Resolution #1116).
| REPORT Maggie Cole Department of Conservation | ACTION TO BE CONSIDERED Final Approval for Dedication |
Item 20:* Madison County -- E. Dora Bohm Memorial Nature Preserve, Dedication
Joanne Cruickshank and Clifford L. Weidner propose to dedicate 6.14 acres of the 83-acre Bohm Woods INAI natural area as the E. Dora Bohm Memorial Nature Preserve. In 1981, the Commission approved in principle the dedication of the entire 83-acre natural area. In 1982, 10.3 acres in the northwest portion of the woods were dedicated as Bohm Woods Nature Preserve. The proposed nature preserve is located in Madison County, approximately 2 miles west of Edwardsville, and is composed entirely of grade A, mesic upland forest. E. Dora Bohm Memorial received preliminary approval for dedication as a nature preserve at the Commission's 147th Meeting (Resolution #1272).
| REPORT Judy Faulkner Nature Preserves Commission | ACTION TO BE CONSIDERED Final Approval for Dedication |
Item 21: Other Business
Item 22: Adjournment