The Parklands Foundation, a central Illinois conservation group, has acquired one of the few remaining remnants of Hill Prairie habitat in Illinois. It's called the "devil’s backbone," an old-time name for the jagged geography of the 55 acres near the Mackinaw River in Woodford County.
“It's such a weird spine. Most bluff points fade and fall to the river. Maybe you get to the end of the bluff point and it's a steep fall. The devil's backbone, just as it begins to fall, it rises up to this point, that's maybe the highest point on the backbone before it plummets down to where the ravine meets the river. Geologically, it's an extremely unusual formation,” said the foundation's Matt Fraker.
On that ground is one of the most intact, diverse "hill prairies" in the Mackinaw River watershed, said Fraker.
“It didn’t get farmed. Because they're in these remote hard-to-get-to areas, cattle can't get out there to graze. There's no reason to do anything agriculturally with them. So, they remain intact with this amazing abundance of plant diversity. And that makes them incredibly high quality. And the devil's backbone has been a target of ours for a very long time,” said Fraker.
There are some non-native plants in the parcel, Fraker said, but the clayey soil is not weed-friendly and that has largely kept invasive species out.
“The spine also helps keep this beautiful established old growth oak timber that spills down into where you walk off the spine. It's mostly white oak," he said. "The landowners that we've been negotiating with for years on this transaction actually went in and did their own restoration on this property, probably in the early 2000s. And really made it healthy, cleaned and opened it up. That really helped with the invasives like the honeysuckle and the autumn olive.”
There has been some overgrowth of native plants that would normally have been checked by fires. He said the Parklands Foundation can manage that issue with controlled burns.
“We have blazing star. We have northern dropseed on the backbone, which is a really tough-to-find native grass. The grasses are important, too. Those seeds are food for our native insects. All of these native plants are great for our native pollinator habitat, which is a critical decline right now. We have several species of orchid throughout the Mackinaw corridor. That's a tough plant to have. It's a special place,” said Fraker.
The parcel acquired by the foundation in a land swap from owners Fraker said wished to remain anonymous is next to the existing Chinquapin Bluffs preserve given to the foundation in the 1970s by the Nature Conservancy.
“There's the chinquapin oak which is our least common oak in central Illinois. It's a real witchy-looking, beautiful oak that loves the steep bluffs next to the Mackinaw River. One of the best groves of chinquapin oak is on the north side of the chinquapin preserve coming in from the Kappa Road before it curves toward Secor. And there's a lot of beautiful chinquapin oaks on the devil's backbone,” said Fraker.
There are hill prairie remnants in Illinois outside of the Mackinaw Valley, but Fraker said they are relatively rare. He said the nearest notable example is in Mason County, known for its sand prairie.
“The big sand blowouts from the glaciers," he said. "They've got really interesting flora and fauna because of that sand ecosystem. It's a group of creatures and plants you might normally find farther to the southwest than in central Illinois.”
Public access
Not all Parklands Foundation property is open to the public. Some is vulnerable, and preservationists do not want people tromping around carrying in non-native seeds on their boots. Fraker said there will be limited access to the devil’s backbone because of that.
“This is a location we will probably use mostly for research, restoration, perhaps a seed bank for some of our other restorations, and education. We definitely want to get people to this wonderful location. But it will certainly be controlled access just because of the fragile nature of the whole thing,” he said.
Rretired Illinois State University scientist Roger Anderson did a plant survey of the land years ago, said Fraker. More recently, the Illinois Natural Areas Inventory did another and designated the devil’s backbone as high-quality conservation ground. He said that was within the last five years, adding the research could include comparing those two studies with a new one to see if certain plants have disappeared because of overgrowth and a lack of management.
“Management is clearing and fire. Those are two big weapons to get the native under story to recover and get the sun to it,” said Fraker. “Prairie plants have these immense root systems. When you run fire over them, you're giving them a haircut. Whereas weeds have small root systems for massive quick reproduction and spread. When you run a fire over weeds, you pretty much wipe out those weeds.”
The Parkland Foundation manages about 1,500 acres of protected ground in the Mackinaw valley corridor in McLean and Woodford counties. It also works with private landowners who are willing to conserve their own property using approved practices. Sometimes, there can be financial support for those patches of land.
“There are a lot of landowners that love the idea and never want to see this ground subdivided and do want to protect it. We have this wonderful tax tool with a conservation easement where they can put permanent restrictions on the ground and it's protected forever,” said Fraker.
The Parklands Foundation also uses grant funding and outright purchases to protect riverine acreage.
“As we move forward, we're starting to try to use these leveraged private landowner tools more often just simply because of economics,” he said, noting buying land is difficult because of high land prices, even for recreational ground.
Development is hard on rivers, said Fraker, noting that limiting development or using organic agriculture near rivers can help water quality. The Mackinaw River is one of the top-rated waterways in the state for its biodiversity.
“It’s an amazing stream. There are several populations of native northern pike in the Mackinaw River and that's a fish that needs really good water to survive,” said Fraker.
