Agencies
Services
Land and Water Reserve Area
9
County
Johnson, Pulaski
Location
The multiple parcels of this site are in extreme southern Illinois south of Vienna near the towns of Cypress, Karnak, and Belknap. The reserve is within the Cache River State Natural Area, which consists of many INPC protected sites (including Heron Pond-Little Black Slough Nature Preserve, Cave Creek Glade Nature Preserve, Section 8 Woods Nature Preserve, & Grassy Slough Land and Water Reserve) and Illinois Natural Area Inventory sites.
Description
Cache River Land and Water Reserve protects natural communities along the riparian corridor of the Cache River. It contains high-quality limestone glades and dry woodlands dominated by plants more commonly associated with the prairies of the Southern Till Plain, overlooking a vast floodplain which contains bald cypress and tupelo swamps like those found in coastal plains areas of the deep south. Other high-quality (Grade A and B) natural communities found on the reserve include swamp, pond, wet floodplain forest, wet-mesic floodplain forest, mesic floodplain forest, dry upland forest, dry-mesic upland forest, and sandstone cliff communities. Many natural communities within the reserve are at the edge of their geographic range and contain species rarely encountered elsewhere in the state (including many threatened or endangered in Illinois).
Ownership
Illinois Department of Natural Resources
Natural Division
Greater Shawnee Hills Section of the Shawnee Hills Natural Division (#13a)
Registered
October 1998
Size
11,693 acres
Access
The site is open to the public.
Topographic Quad
Vienna, Karnak, & Cypress
For Further Information
Visit the State Natural Area Website or Contact the INPC
Illinois Nature Preserves Commission
One Natural Resources Way
Springfield, IL 62702
217-785-8686
DNR.INPC@illinois.gov