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Wagon Lake

Land and Water Reserve Area

7

County

St. Clair

Location

The site is on the east edge of St. Clair County, within 2 miles of the Washington County border, and 2.5 miles east of Fayetteville.

Description

Wagon Lake Land and Water Reserve is a Grade A shrub-swamp/marsh community with several rare plant species (including three state-listed species) recognized on the Illinois Natural Areas Inventory (INAI #0308). The shrub swamp/marsh is dominated by buttonbush and smartweed species and includes a diverse assemblage of other wetland plant species including hairy rose mallow, bur reed, yellow pond lily, fragrant water lily, and allow arum. The site also contains successional woods and Grade B and C wet bottomland forest, dominated by pin oak, black willow, and silver maple. The area represents an excellent example of a backwater lake associated with the Kaskaskia Corridor and is in very close proximity to the 7,300-acre large forest block identified as the Kaskaskia Bottoms Macrosite.

Ownership

Illinois Department of Natural Resources

Natural Division

Effingham Plain Section of the Southern Till Plain Natural Division (#9a)

Registered

February 2005

Size

114 acres

Access

The site is open to the public for hiking and wildlife watching, but there are no trails.

Topographic Quad

Venedy

For Further Information

Illinois Nature Preserves Commission
One Natural Resources Way
Springfield, IL 62702
217-785-8686
DNR.INPC@illinois.gov