Yonder Prairie Nature Preserve Dedication

Yonder Prairie is Illinois' latest Nature Preserve, and that's a beautiful thing!

Here's a picture of the McHenry County contingent that was in attendance at the 205th meeting of the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission in Cypress, Illinois on May 4th when the formal dedication was made. Shown are Lisa Haderlein with husband Tom Cubr, Steve & Caron Wenzel, and John Nelson (the one in the tie). Tom, Lisa & Caron are sporting TLC's Yonder Prairie Nature Preserve t-shirts!

John lives in Woodstock and works for the Nature Preserve Commission. He worked with TLC to complete the dedication documents, and gave an excellent presentation to the Commission highlighting the ecological merits of the site. Thanks John.

As we learned at the meeting, there are now 351 Nature Preserves in Illinois (technically, I think Yonder is the 349th). These sites represent some of the most unique and precious pieces of the state's natural history. While many sites are on public land, a growing number of sites are located on private property -- as is the case with Yonder.

The Nature Preserves system was designed to help landowner preserve properties across the state that provide habitat for threatened and endangered species, and also have prime example of natural habitats that were once abundant in the state.

At Yonder Prairie, two features qualified the site for Nature Preserve status: documentation of Blanding's Turtles from the site, and the presence of a Grade B wet prairie.

Note: As of last month, we also confirmed that a Sandhill Crane is nesting at the site! We were able to confirm this when a crane aggressively guarded a portion of the property while we were conducting an ecological burn. Don't worry, we steered clear of the crane! But we did put him on the t-shirt!