Agencies
Services
Nature Preserve Area
10
County
Lee
Location And Access
The preserve is located within the Green River Lowland section of the Grand Prairie Natural Division of Illinois. More specifically, it is found approximately 3.0 miles southeast of the town of Amboy. The site is open to the public. Public access is provided on the south side of Lewis Road. From the town of Amboy, take IL Route 52 south to Searls Road (turn left) and then 1.3 miles to Lewis Road (turn right) and then 1.0 miles to a public parking lot.
Description
Gremel Wildlife Sanctuary Nature Preserve includes the Augustana Sedge Meadow Illinois Natural Areas Inventory site (INAI #1828). This natural community was added to the INAI in 2012 as a Category I site for presence of a 1-acre, Grade B sedge meadow. The site is in what was once the largest prairie grove in Lee County. Eolian sand dunes, combined with glacial outwash deposits and basins that formed near the base of the Bloomington Moraine, made this landscape uniquely suited to the growth of trees in what was once a seemingly endless expanse of open prairie in the early 1800s. These same characteristics spared the site from the ravages of the plow that erased from existence the original prairies and “great swamps” of Lee County. Today, relicts of this former timbered grove remain at Gremel Wildlife Sanctuary Nature Preserve.
Ownership
Illinois Audubon Society
Dedicated
June 2022
Size
392 acres with buffer
Topographic Quad
Amboy
For Further Information
Illinois Audubon Society
2313 E. Clear Lake Ave.
Springfield, IL 62703
(217) 544-2473