Agencies
Services
Land and Water Reserve Area
9
County
Johnson
Location
The site is in southwest Johnson County approximately 8 miles southwest of the town of Vienna, in extreme southern Illinois. It 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, and the Cache River Land and Water Reserve) and Illinois Natural Area Inventory sites.
Description
Grassy Slough Land and Water Reserve helps protect and buffer a rich diversity of wetlands, forested swamps, and bottomland hardwood forests that can be found nowhere else in the state. The site contains restored bottomland hardwood forests, swamp forests, and wetlands that provide food, cover, and water for large numbers of migratory waterfowl and shorebirds, herons, egrets, bitterns, and rails. Some of the birds which utilize the reserve are state-listed species. The physical location of the site connects two large state-owned areas of the Cache River State Natural Area. The habitat within the reserve contributes significantly to the viability of natural communities and species within sites in the Cache River State Natural Area and provides a physical connection to facilitate management.
Ownership
Illinois Department of Natural Resources
Natural Division
Lesser Shawnee Hills Section of the Shawnee Hills Natural Division (#13b), Bottomlands Section of the Coastal Plain Natural Division (#14b)
Registered
May 2003
Size
2,673 acres
Access
The site is open to the public.
Topographic Quad
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