Agencies
Services
Land and Water Reserve Area
5
County
Macoupin, Montgomery
Location
The site is in western Montgomery and southeastern Macoupin Counties between the towns of Litchfield and Gillespie. It is found located along the southeastern edge of the Western Forest-Prairie Natural Division.
Description
Gillespie Prairie Land and Water Reserve consists of a 7.28 stretch of former railroad bed adjacent to Illinois State Route 16. The Illinois Natural Areas Inventory (INAI #1337) recognizes a small portion of the site as habitat for a state-endangered plant species. The natural communities found on site are degraded dry-mesic prairie and successional forest plant communities. Mesic, tallgrass prairie species found on site consist of flowering spurge, prairie dock, butterfly weed, big bluestem, cord grass, spiderwort, and rosinweed. The INAI only recognizes a few high-quality prairies in the Carlinville Section of the Western Forest-Prairie Natural Division. This Natural Division is characterized by deep, forested ravines with intervening flat prairie openings. The site also has habitat suitable for Species in Greatest Need of Conservation such as grassland and shrubland birds.
Ownership
Illinois Department of Natural Resources
Natural Division
Carlinville Section of the Western Forest-Prairie Natural Division (#7b)
Registered
February 1998
Size
78 acres
Access
The site is open to the public for nature observation and hiking, though no developed trails exist.
Topographic Quad
Gillespie North & Litchfield
For Further Information
Illinois Nature Preserves Commission
One Natural Resources Way
Springfield, IL 62702
217-785-8686
DNR.INPC@illinois.gov