The Forest Park Nature Center is a staffed nature center in Peoria Heights, a suburb of

Peoria, Illinois Peoria ( ) is the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, United States, and the largest city on the Illinois River. As of the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census, the city had a population of 113,150. It is the principal city of the Peoria ...

. The nature center and surrounding parkland is operated by the Peoria Park District to interpret and celebrate the elevational bluffs and oak savannahs of the

Peoria Lake Peoria Lake is a section of the Illinois River between Peoria in Peoria County, Illinois and East Peoria in Tazewell County, Illinois. The oldest section of Peoria, the largest city on the river, lies at its shores. The lake is formed by a bro ...

watershed, which in CE 1492 was one of the most fertile and productive ecosystems known to humankind.

Description

The Forest Park Nature Center contains a small natural history museum, with an emphasis on oak-hickory synergies on a soil of sandy

loess Loess (, ; from german: Löss ) is a clastic, predominantly silt-sized sediment that is formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. Ten percent of Earth's land area is covered by loess or similar deposits. Loess is a periglacial or aeolian ...

. A model

chinquapin oak ''Quercus muehlenbergii'', the chinquapin (or chinkapin) oak, is a deciduous species of tree in the white oak group (''Quercus'' sect. ''Quercus''). The species was often called ''Quercus acuminata'' in older literature. ''Quercus muehlenbergii ...

anchors the museum display. While loess soils are vulnerable to erosion, the root systems of the oaks, hickories, and other trees of the Forest Park ecosystem keep that section of the fragile bluffs from slumping into Lake Peoria. The natural history displays explain the roots of trees, prairie grasses, and flowers, and how the roots of individual plants work together to form a combined root system. Around the Nature Center, 500 acres (200 hectares) of dedicated parkland (including a parcel granted standing as an Illinois State Nature Preserve) contains 7 miles (11 km) of hiking trails for field observations of the lessons learned in the center. The trails concentrate on the forested woodlands of the Lake Peoria bluffland, with some of the earthen pathways jumping in and out of small, grassy

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 ...

openings. Along these trails many of Illinois's native species can be seen in their natural habitat. These animals include deer, raccoons, wild turkeys, and squirrels.

References

{{Coord, 40, 45, 26, N, 89, 34, 30, W, display=title Protected areas of Peoria County, Illinois Tourist attractions in Peoria, Illinois Forest parks in the United States Nature centers in Illinois