Over the past 10 months the Conservation District has acquired an additional 1,388 acres throughout the county that will remain in perpetuity as protected open space for future generations. These parcels were made possible by the support of McHenry County voters for successfully passing the 2007 Bond Referendum.

Highlights of the most recent acquisitions include additions to:

Coral Woods  - 34.5 acres added on the southeast portion

Alden Sedge Meadow - 192 acres added on the east side of the existing site

Rush Creek  - 49 acres added east of Windy Hill Road

Along the H.U.M. trail - 73 acres added on the north side in Marengo

Another featured purchase includes a 150-acre parcel, consisting of oak woodlands, wetlands and farmland, located west of Route 47 at Raycraft Road, north of Jankowski and across the street from Bystricky Prairie.

 

McHenry Area

45 acres were purchased in the City of McHenry located at Broadway and Beach Roads, directly north and across the river from Moraine Hills State Park within the rapidly-growing Nunda Township. The Conservation District’s Stickney Run site adjoins State Park property on its southern border creating a continual greenway corridor of over 650 acres and an important component of a large cluster of high-quality resources in the upper Fox River basin.

"This parcel is one of the last remaining, unprotected backwater marshes of the Fox River where the original wetland communities and hydrological soils are still intact,” said Ed Collins Natural Resource Manager. “It is also a haven for declining wetland bird populations including the state threatened Sandhill Crane.”

 

McHenry Area

16 acres will be gifted from Town & County Homes/Hovstone Properties Illinois LLC. The property is located west of Barreville Road and adjoins to the District’s 568-acre Stickney Run Conservation Area near the Moss Grove Cemetery parcel.

Stickney Run creek runs through the parcel and feeds downstream into the wetland complex owned by the District. Under District management both the water quality and the surrounding greenway will be protected and thereby providing a key corridor for migration of multiple aquatic, amphibian and plant species.

“This is a perfect example of how development and natural areas can coexist. Town & Country used the best design principles to create a development that included an ecologically designed buffer that allowed for the greatest protection of neighboring natural land and water resources,” said Executive Director Elizabeth Kessler. 

 

Harvard Area

Two parcels totaling 50 acres adjacent Rush Creek. A 33 acre purchase located NE of Route 14 along Windy Hill Road will protect one of the last remaining areas of mature oak woodlands in the area.  “Recent MCCD studies on oak woodland distribution between 1837 and 2005 have discovered that over 90% of McHenry County’s original oak ecosystems have disappeared,” said Ed Collins Natural Resource Manager. “This area is rich with wooded communities dominated by oak species and is one of the larger remaining sections of the former Big Woods Region in McHenry County.”

An additional seventeen acres, located on Streit Rd. along the southern boundary of Rush Creek was also purchased. This parcel protects an upland drainage way that provides water to Rush Creek as well as acting as an important buffer to high-quality wetland communities restored at Rush Creek Conservation Area in 2003.

 

Cary Area

57 acres were purchased adjacent to the Conservation District’s 219-acre Fel-Pro RRR site. The parcel is located north of Crystal Lake Road and south of Rawson Bridge Road.

“This parcel has been on the District’s high priority list for acquisition for more than six years. Because of its location to an existing conservation site, this site fits perfectly into the District’s goal of creating larger macro sites – or core preserves where the sustainability of plant and animal communities have had greater success. We are now able to protect a valuable resource for the residents of McHenry County,” said Executive Director Elizabeth Kessler.

The parcel contains 13-acres of an increasingly rare oak savanna as well as a 30-acre, high-quality fen wetland complex.

Natural resource Inventories conducted on the site discovered several state endangered and threatened plants and fish species within the fen complex that would be lost if the area was developed.

Fel-Pro RRR Conservation Area was gifted to the District by the Fel-Pro Manufacturing Company in 1999 and is fully developed with parking areas, picnic shelters, ball fields, courts and fishing opportunities. The District has a lease agreement with YMCA for the recreational opportunities on the east side of the site, while the west side is primarily natural areas.

 

Coral and Alden Townships

The Conservation District expanded the northern boundaries of Coral Woods Conservation Area with the purchase of a 127-acre parcel known as Settler’s Place. This property adds additional wetlands and completes a biological boundary that will allow staff to manage the area as one ecological complex rather than broken units restricted by property boundaries. In turn, this newly acquired property will buffer high quality ephemeral wetland that exists within Coral Woods sugar maple stands. The acquisition also protects several tracts of mature old growth oak woodlands.  

 

A 192-acre parcel located adjacent Alden Sedge Meadow in unincorporated Alden Township was also approved. This long sought after parcel contains Nippersink Creek and valuable wetlands that are contiguous to those the District currently owns. The significance of this purchase is that it brings the District closer to protecting the upper Nippersink watershed. This site contains a half-mile of Nippersink Creek frontage as the stream leaves the high quality wetlands along Mud Lake in the Alden Sedge Meadow complex. A majority of the property is agricultural land with scattered oak groves that will remain in crop production for a time, while biological inventories of the site are completed. 

 

Marengo Area

22 vacant acres were purchased near Marengo on Thorn Road in the Kishwaukee Corridor Conservation Area, a 2,300 acre protected macrosite. The land is primarily wetlands and contains backwaters from the Kishwaukee River watershed. The Kishwaukee River Corridor is one of a handful of areas remaining in the county where large blocks of plants and animals are protected which increases their sustainability.