The Friends Creek Conservation Area is a 616-acre (2.5 km²) natural area in the U.S. state of

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

, located in Friends Creek Township near

Cisco Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, ...

in northeastern Macon County. The conservation area, located 18 miles (29 km) north of Decatur, preserves creek woodlands and has regrown some

tallgrass prairie The tallgrass prairie is an ecosystem native to central North America. Historically, natural and anthropogenic fire, as well as grazing by large mammals (primarily bison) provided periodic disturbances to these ecosystems, limiting the encroach ...

and

oak–hickory forest Oak–hickory forest is a type of North American forest ecosystem, and an ecoregion of the Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests Biome. Geography It has a range extending from Rhode Island and southern New York, west to Iowa, and south to Northern ...

. It serves the people of the Decatur metropolitan area.

Description

The Friends Creek Conservation Area land is a combination of creekside woodland and upland meadow/oak-hickory savanna. The

Macon County Conservation District The Macon County Conservation District (MCCD) is a public park authority, created in 1966, serving the metropolitan area of Decatur in the U.S. state of Illinois. The conservation district operates five conservation areas and six historic sites, a ...

describes the land as a combination of "floodplain, forest, open meadows, and tall grass prairie". The conservation area houses three trails, with lengths totaling 3.5 miles (5.6 km) for active use, and centers on a 35-site primitive/non-primitive campground that borders on winding Friends Creek. Camping fees are charged, with a discount for Macon County residents. A key historic asset of the conservation area, across a rural road from the campground, is the Bethel School, a surviving one-room schoolhouse built about 1890. It continues in use for educational field trips. The conservation area is served by Exit 156 ("Cisco") on

Interstate 72 Interstate 72 (I-72) is an Interstate Highway in the midwestern United States. Its western terminus is in Hannibal, Missouri, at an intersection with U.S. Route 61 (US 61); its eastern terminus is at Country Fair Drive in Champai ...

. Its address is 13734 Friends Creek Park Road, Cisco, Illinois.

References

{{coord, 40.026, -88.790, type:landmark_region:US-IL_dim:3000, display=title Protected areas of Macon County, Illinois Tourist attractions in Macon County, Illinois