photo: Forest Preserve District of DuPage County

Natural Wonders

The Chicago Wilderness region contains a great diversity of plants and animals living in a variety of natural communities. The region contains many types of prairies, woodlands, wetlands and savannas. Each separate type of natural community has its own special combination of plants and animals.

Prairies

Tallgrass prairie once covered much of the Chicago Wilderness region. Early accounts tell of grasses tall enough to hide a man on horseback. That height must have been rare, but settlers often lost cattle in the pastures of August. Only one one-hundredth of one percent of Illinois' original high quality prairie survives. Many of the remaining remnants are found in the Chicago region and they contain a wealth of plants and animals.

Toss a hula hoop on the ground in one of the Chicago region's remaining prairie remnants and you might find as many as 30 different prairie plants growing within that circle. If we studied a few acres of prairie, we might find a hundred species of plants. From the time the first violets bloom in May, until the last aster fades in October, something is always in bloom in the prairies of Chicago Wilderness.

The prairies are also home to a diverse collection of animals. Birds like meadowlarks, sandpipers and bobolinks make their homes in the region's grasslands. Sandhill cranes had vanished from the Chicago Wilderness region, but they have returned to nest in the prairies and wetlands of Lake, McHenry and DuPage counties. Visitors to a prairie in the Chicago region might also glimpse a smooth green snake, a beautiful little serpent with glowing green tint. Settlers eliminated big grazers like bison and elk from the landscape, but plans are underway to bring these majestic creatures back at places like the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie in Will County.

Woodlands

Some trees in Chicago Wilderness stand alone in wide grasslands. Others grow in savannas, where sunlight reaches the ground and grasses and wildflowers grow among the trees. Still other wooded areas are dense forests where the forest floor is shadowy. All of these wooded communities have been altered since the region was settled, but many of the degraded woodlands still have the potential return to health, and still hold a great variety of plants and animals.

Red-tailed hawks nest in savannas and hunt over prairies and fields. Northern orioles also prefer savannas to denser woodlands and build hanging nests high in the crowns of tall trees. Wild hyacinths grow under oak and bitternut hickory trees in the region's open woodlands.

Other plants and animals are more at home in dense forests. White trilliums bloom in oak forests in early spring and Western chorus frogs sing in our forest ponds. The salamanders of the forest floor do not call attention to themselves, but people lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time have seen hundreds at once.

Wetlands

Most of the wetlands that existed in the Chicago region 200 years ago have been drained or filled. Those that remain provide important habitat for plants and animals. Orchids like white lady slippers grow in the remaining wetlands. Ducks like the blue-winged teal scoop up duckweed and snails. Great blue herons, great egrets, and black-crowned night herons fish in shallow wetland waters.

Beavers disappeared from the Chicago region by 1850 due to trapping. Now beavers have returned to build lodges in wetlands and along streams. Muskrats are also a common sight in wetlands in Chicago Wilderness. If you arrive at a wetland early in the morning you might even catch sight of a mink turning in after a long night of hunting.

Waters

Several endangered and threatened species live in the lakes, streams and rivers of the Chicago region. These include small fish like shiners and rainbow darters and mussels like the creek heelsplitter. Rivers are also homes to fish like smallmouth and largemouth bass.

photo: Forest Preserve District of DuPage County

Lake Michigan forms the eastern border of the Chicago Wilderness region. The Great Lakes are among the wonders of the world. The five inland seas hold one-sixth of the world's surface fresh water. Lake Michigan has suffered from over-fishing, invasive species and pollution. However, international efforts have produced major improvements and efforts continue to improve the health of the lake.

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