Frequently Asked Questions

To qualify for Nature Preserve status, and area must have high quality plant or animal communities, such as those recognized by the Illinois Natural Areas Inventory (INAI). Once dedicated, a Nature Preserve is protected by state law from development, abuse, and misuse in perpetuity.

Since Nature Preserves are protected primarily for nature’s sake, only nature-compatible recreation is allowed in Nature Preserves. Removal of plant material and animals and most recreation (hunting, fishing, foraging, off-roading, flower-gathering, dog-walking, etc.) are not allowed in Nature Preserves (except with approval in certain, limited cases) in order to keep their rare nature safe and healthy. Nearly 600 Nature Preserves have been dedicated to date.

Most State Park and county Forest Preserves lands are not Nature Preserves, though many Nature Preserves do occur within state park and forest preserve holdings. Nature Preserves can be owned and dedicated by anyone including conservation organizations, government agencies, private individuals, and corporations. The agency that oversees the dedication and maintenance of Nature Preserves is the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission (INPC), which is a part of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR).

The exact guidelines for balancing preservation of important ecological or archaeological features with other land uses such as hunting and fishing is decided on by the landowner and INPC staff and board at the time of registration of the Land and Water Reserve. The landowner and INPC may also set legal protections for Land and Water Reserves for a set period of time, instead of in perpetuity.

However, because of the continuous changes that have occurred since Euro-American settlement, even remnants have typically lost some ecological quality and diversity. This is especially true of highly-dynamic, fire-dependent ecosystems like prairies, oak savannas, and oak woodlands. To help fully understand original Illinois ecosystems, scientists also look to historical resources, such as the Public Land Survey of Illinois in the 1830s, old aerial photographs, historic eyewitness accounts, and the works of early naturalists. By comparing these sources with ecological realities today, ecologists can make judgments about ecosystem structure and composition in the past. In recent years, high-level restoration projects have also helped piece together parts of the puzzle. There’s still much we don’t know, and we’re learning more every day!

The belief that people have no role in nature is recent, urban, and false. Modern scholarship recognizes that people, beginning with Native Americans, have always had large-scale positive and negative impacts on biodiversity. Healthy and diverse native ecosystems can suffer not only from obvious human-caused threats like pollution, plowing, clear-cutting, invasive species, habitat fragmentation, and climate change – but also from the absence of certain human influences that nature evolved with for thousands to millions of years (like fire). Thus, it’s up to us to decide what the legacy of our impacts will be: will they preserve biodiversity, or not? It’s almost as if our native ecosystems are calling upon us to reclaim our former relationship as stewards of the land.

Over time (sometimes just a few years), the composition of a healthy and diverse ecosystem will be knocked off-balance and begin to shift toward one dominated by just a few invasive non-native and/or aggressive native species. Without management, the likely end result for most of our Nature Preserves would be complete degradation, biodiversity loss, and the end of millions of years of evolution. Already in a few cases, substantial parts of natural areas preserved to protect a particular rare species or biological community have degraded to the point that they’ve lost many or most of the species or communities for which they were preserved in the first place.

Most of our native ecosystems also coevolved with historic, human-caused influences – including hunting and especially regular, dormant-season burning. In the absence of fire, invasive and opportunistic native species (like maple trees in an oak woodland) can spread like cancer through fire-dependent ecosystems. In time, this invasion causes the loss of entire communities of native plant and animal species, many of which used to be quite common but are rare today. In the absence of natural predators (including wolves, mountain lions, and people), overpopulated deer can be equally devastating by reducing plant populations below sustainable levels. Active management seeks to compensate for the lack of these historic influences, without which degraded natural areas cannot revert to their original health and diversity. In the long run, “conservation by restoration” is a key tool for sustainably preserving our precious natural heritage.

Degraded natural areas and buffer lands may also benefit from active restoration in addition to regular management. Restoration aims to restore the natural processes and conditions in ecosystems that have declined to the point that they no longer function like the ecosystem they were previously. This work may entail removing problem species, promoting ecologically appropriate species, restoring original hydrology (removing artificial drainage or flooding), signage, fencing, and education. Restoration of buffer areas around high-quality remnants may help expand habitat for conservation-priority species within the remnant, while also likely improving their efficacy as barriers to external threats. The process of making and enacting management and restoration decisions is part of what we call stewardship. Volunteers have long played and continue to play an important part in the stewardship of our Nature Preserves.

Many preserves have degraded buffer areas that could be restored to better protect the high-quality core. On a broader level, state policymakers need to know that people care for the Illinois Nature Preserves System to receive the full support the preserves need. No matter the particular case, all of our Nature Preserves deserve dedicated stewardship, public support, and constituency.

Many of us are inspired by local restoration efforts in needy preserves and come out to cut invasive brush in winter, collect precious local seeds in the summer, or help out in prescribed burns in fall and spring. Others learn to identify and monitor rare plants and animals and as citizen scientists help staff understand changes in the ecosystem. Still others are strong advocates for the Nature Preserves, educating state and local policymakers or contributing funding or services to Nature Preserve partner organizations. Some learn to help in small ways early on and then rapidly become leaders in this new Nature Preserve community. Others start small and then gradually grow into whatever role best suits them. All who care are appreciated and welcome. As the Friends, our vision for the future is one where every Nature Preserve has a dedicated team of local stewards that help owning agencies and Nature Preserves staff ensure natural health and wellbeing. With similar staff-and-volunteer communities all across the state, we defend and cherish the protection and recovery of Illinois’ glorious natural heritage.