Agencies
Services
Nature Preserve Area
4
County
Warren
Location And Access
From Roseville at jct. Hwys. 67 & 116, take Hwy. 116 east 4 miles to gravel road, then turn and go north 2.5 miles, then turn and go east 1 mile. The nature preserve is 0.35 mile south by way of an access easement (Five miles northeast of Roseville). It is not open to the public.
Description
Massasauga Prairie is along a small valley in the Galesburg Section of the Western Forest-Prairie Natural Division. This area, where prairie and forest intermingled, is now mostly cultivated farmland and pasture. However, the steepest slopes found in the Massasauga Prairie area escaped the plow and still contain woodlands, thickets and wet and mesic prairie. Two outstanding features include a colony of eastern massasauga rattlesnakes and areas of high quality prairie. The wet prairie habitat and eastern massasauga go hand in hand. With the disappearance of wet prairie, the range of the snake became widely scattered. Other notable species include a variety of plants such as bunchflower, closed gentian, downy gentian and Turk's cap lily. Interesting animals observed in the area include blue racer, western fox snake, short-billed marsh wren, masked shrew and meadow vole.
Ownership
Illinois Department of Natural Resources
Dedicated
August 1983
Size
6.2 acres
Topographic Quad
Berwick
For Further Information
Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Natural Heritage Biologist, Jubilee College State Park, 13921 West Route 150, Brimfield, IL 61517 (309/446-8181)