Agencies
Services
Land and Water Reserve Area
6
County
Vermilion
Location
The site is approximately 3.7 miles southwest of Danville in Blount Township within the Kickapoo State Recreation Area.
Description
Kickapoo Hill Prairie Land and Water Reserve is composed of a complex of small glacial drift hill prairies and eroding bluffs interspersed amongst mesic and dry-mesic upland forest overlooking the Middle Fork of the Vermilion River and its floodplain. The forest and incorporated prairies contain an assemblage of native woodland and prairie plants that provide habitat for an assortment of native wildlife. The natural communities are composed of 0.38 acres of Grade B and 0.45 acres of Grade C glacial drift hill prairie buffered by Grade C dry woodland, Grade C mesic upland forest, Grade C dry-mesic upland forest, Grade C wet floodplain forest, and successional old field. A wide variety of native grasses, sedges, and wildflowers inhabit the hill prairies. Characteristic species include side-oats grama, little bluestem, Indian grass, hairy green sedge, and common wood sedge. Notable wildflowers include hairy meadow parsnip, smooth blue aster, sky-blue aster, cylindrical blazing star, and stiff gentian. The hill prairies are recognized on the Illinois Natural Areas Inventory (INAI # 1817). The reserve also buffers a small section of the Middle Fork of the Vermilion River, Illinois’ only National Wild and Scenic River, and lies within the Vermilion River Conservation Opportunity Area.
Ownership
Illinois Department of Natural Resources
Natural Division
Vermilion River Section of the Wabash Border Natural Division (#10c)
Registered
September 2014
Size
37 acres
Access
The site is open to the public. Access is via a mowed path that separates Kennekuk Cove County Park and the reserve. Visitors can park in the gravel lot and follow the path until it meets an opening to the agricultural field on the south side of the path, then follow another less traveled path along the north and west boundaries of the restored prairie/savanna to access the site.
Topographic Quad
Danville NW
For Further Information
Visit the State Recreation Area Website or Contact the INPC
Illinois Nature Preserves Commission
One Natural Resources Way
Springfield, IL 62702
217-785-8686
DNR.INPC@illinois.gov
