The Mackinaw River State Fish and Wildlife Area is a

state park State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural ...

Tazewell County, Illinois Tazewell County () is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it had a population of 135,394. Its county seat and largest city is Pekin. It is pronounced with a short "a", to rhyme with "razz" rather than "raze." ...

. It is operated by the

Illinois Department of Natural Resources The Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) is the code department of the Illinois state government that operates the state parks and state recreation areas, enforces the fishing and game laws of Illinois, regulates Illinois coal mines, ...

(IDNR). The Area dates to 1970, when a conservation group based in Bloomington, the Parklands Foundation, donated its acreage to the state. The Mackinaw River SFWA consists of more than two square miles of upslope on the south bank of the

Mackinaw River The Mackinaw River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed May 13, 2011 tributary of the Illinois River in the U.S. state of Illinois. Its watershed covers approximately , ...

, primarily wooded land with some upland meadows. There are also two sections of Mackinaw River bottomland that offer direct access to the river; each section is approximately wide. The Mackinaw River SWFA is primarily managed for the hunting of

whitetail deer The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced t ...

, although

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...

and

canoeing Canoeing is an activity which involves paddling a canoe with a single-bladed paddle. Common meanings of the term are limited to when the canoeing is the central purpose of the activity. Broader meanings include when it is combined with other acti ...

are also welcomed. The Mackinaw River is a free-running river throughout most of its length, and therefore offers potential for the preservation of

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

and

shellfish Shellfish is a colloquial and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish are harvested from saltwater envir ...

species (particularly

mussels Mussel () is the common name used for members of several families of bivalve mollusc Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,0 ...

) historically associated with the tallgrass

prairie Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...

. However, most of the river's

drainage Drainage is the natural or artificial removal of a surface's water and sub-surface water from an area with excess of water. The internal drainage of most agricultural soils is good enough to prevent severe waterlogging (anaerobic conditio ...

is heavily utilized for crop

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...

ing, with its potential for

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is distin ...

and consequent

siltation Siltation, is water pollution caused by particulate terrestrial clastic material, with a particle size dominated by silt or clay. It refers both to the increased concentration of suspended sediments and to the increased accumulation (temporary or ...

. Sixty-six percent of the river's drainage is cropland. The Mackinaw River State Fish and Wildlife Area is an island of natural drainage into the vulnerable river, although it takes up less than 1.2% of the river's total watershed. The nearest town to the Mackinaw River SFWA is

Mackinaw, Illinois Mackinaw is a village in Tazewell County, Illinois, United States, and is part of the Peoria, Illinois Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its population was 1,950 at the 2010 census. Local businesses include Area 52 Paintball, and Mackinaw Valley Vi ...

External links

*
University of Illinois - Mackinaw River

References

State parks of Illinois Protected areas of Tazewell County, Illinois Protected areas established in 1970 1970 establishments in Illinois {{TazewellCountyIL-geo-stub