Agencies
Services
Nature Preserve Area
3
County
Cook
Location And Access
The site is located 0.5 mile south of IL Route 30 on Central Ave in Matteson. Public access is restricted to the Plank Road Trail, a publicly owned regional asphalted bicycle path, that bisects the Nature Preserve.
Description
Old Plank Road Prairie Nature Preserve, as the name implies, was an actual plank road used by European settlers to traverse the region’s vast wetlands and prairie by wagon. Like so many other prairie remnants located along rail lines, the site survived because the railroad rights-of-way were off limits to farming, grazing, and development. During the original Illinois Natural Areas Inventory in the late 1970’s, Old Plank Road Prairie was one of the finest examples of black soil prairie in all of Illinois. The site currently ranges in quality from patches of Grade A prairie to highly disturbed prairie. Dominant plant species characteristic of mesic tall grass prairie present on site include big bluestem, Indian grass, and northern dropseed. Other prairie species include sunflowers, mints, rattlesnake-master, flowering spurge, Michigan lily, lousewort, and asters. A total of 62 native species have been identified on the preserve.
Ownership
Village of Matteson & Rich Township
Dedicated
July 1997
Size
13.39 Acres
Topographic Quad
Frankfort
For Further Information
Illinois Nature Preserves Commission
One Natural Resources Way
Springfield, IL 62702
217-785-8686