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Land and Water Reserve Area
7
County
Monroe
Location
The site is located 1-mile southwest of Valmeyer and 7 miles southwest of Waterloo in western Monroe County within the St. Louis Metropolitan region. It is 3 miles east of the Mississippi River in the bluffs above the American Bottoms. There are many protected natural areas in proximity including Maher's Woods Nature Preserve, Illinois Ozarks Nature Preserve, Luella Schaefer Memorial Hill Prairies Land and Water Reserve, Salt Lick Point Land and Water Reserve, and White Rock Nature Preserve.
Description
White Rock Land and Water Reserve is an important part of a regional bluff protection effort that involves a 35-miles corridor in southwest Illinois comprised of sites in the Illinois Nature Preserve System. It contains a mosaic of high-quality limestone glade (Grade B) and upland forest (Grade C dry mesic and dry upland) included on the Potato Hill Illinois Natural Areas Inventory Site (INAI #200) in the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River floodplain. The upland forest comprises most of the site. Woody species typical to the dry-mesic potion include white oak and shagbark hickory, while the mesic upland forests are primarily blackjack oak, post oak, and chinkapin oak. The glade communities contain a variety of forbs, such as the dominant plant species little bluestem and side oats grama, and conservative plants purple prairie clover, New Jersey tea, blazing star, and scurf tea. The site is additionally an important area for birds, especially those sensitive to forest fragmentation and Species in Greatest Conservation Need, as well as for the state threatened and endangered species which inhabit the site.
Ownership
Clifftop
Natural Division
Northern Section of the Ozark Natural Division (#11a)
Registered
May 2011
Size
168 acres
Access
The site is not open to the public.
Topographic Quad
Valmeyer
For Further Information
Visit the Clifftop Website or Contact the INPC
Illinois Nature Preserves Commission
One Natural Resources Way
Springfield, IL 62702
217-785-8686
DNR.INPC@illinois.gov