Illinois has a variety of protected areas, including 123 state protected areas - state parks, wildlife areas, recreation areas, nature reserves, and state forests. There are also federal and local level protected areas in the state. These levels interact to provide a variety of recreation opportunities and conservation schemes, sometimes in a small area. For instance, Shabbona Lake State Park lies in DeKalb County, Illinois, DeKalb County which has its own forest preserve system, while the Dekalb, Illinois, City of DeKalb has a park system. A UNESCO World Heritage Site in Illinois, Cahokia, is protected as State-owned historic site.

Overview

Illinois has a wide variety of state owned and administered protected areas: state parks, state forests, state recreation areas, state fish and wildlife areas, state natural areas, and one state trail. They are all administered by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. In addition, several of the state historic sites, administered by its Illinois Historic Preservation Division, also include nature reserves. There is also a United States National Forest, national forest, Shawnee National Forest, a national grassland, Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, and several other sites administered by the National Park Service, including portions of National Trails. There are also National Wildlife Refuges.

Federal protected areas

U.S. Wilderness Areas

*Bald Knob Wilderness *Bay Creek Wilderness *Burden Falls Wilderness *Clear Springs Wilderness *Crab Orchard Wilderness *Garden of the Gods Wilderness *Lusk Creek Wilderness *Panther Den Wilderness

National Forest Service

*Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie - *Shawnee National Forest -

United States Fish and Wildlife Service

* Chautauqua National Wildlife Refuge * Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge - including the Crab Orchard Wilderness * Cypress Creek National Wildlife Refuge * Emiquon National Wildlife Refuge * Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge * Mark Twain National Wildlife Refuge Complex * Meredosia National Wildlife Refuge * Middle Mississippi River National Wildlife Refuge * Two Rivers National Wildlife Refuge

National Park Service

The Parks Service operates the federally owned Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield, Illinois, the Pullman National Historical Park in Chicago, and the New Philadelphia National Historic Site in Pike County, Illinois, Pike County in rural western Illinois. The Chicago Portage National Historic Site is an NPS-affiliated site which is located in the Cook County Forest Preserves, Forest Preserve District of Cook County. In addition, the NPS partners with the Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

*Carlyle Lake - of water and of public land *Illinois Waterway *Lake Shelbyville - lake and of land *Rend Lake - of water and of land

Wetlands (Ramsar Convention)

Areas List of Ramsar sites in the United States, designated as wetlands of international importance under the Ramsar Convention: *Cache River-Cypress Creek Wetlands *Chiwaukee Prairie Illinois Beach Lake Plain (shared with Wisconsin) *The Emiquon Complex *Dixon Waterfowl Refuge *Upper Mississippi (shared with Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin)

Current state parks

State parks are owned by the state and generally administered by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

Historic preservation

Around 50 usually smaller sites concerning historic structures are owned by the state and administered by the Illinois Historic Preservation Division, some of which may have a nature preservation component, including the Cahokia World Heritage Site and Lincoln's New Salem.

Local level parks

A variety of county and town protected areas exist in Illinois, including city park districts and county-wide Forest Preserve Districts, as well as land owned by private organizations. One of the largest systems is the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, which includes Brookfield Zoo and the Chicago Botanic Garden as well as of open land, or 11.6 percent of Cook County’s land area. Most counties lack a public landholding agency, but below are the landholdings of such districts in Illinois: *Boone County Conservation District - *Byron Forest Preserve District - *Champaign County Forest Preserve District - *Cook County Forest Preserves, Forest Preserve District of Cook County - *DeKalb County Forest Preserve - *Forest Preserve District of DuPage County - *Forest Preserve District of Kane County - *Forest Preserves of the Kankakee River Valley - *Kendall County Forest Preserve District - *Lake County Forest Preserve - *Macon County Conservation District - *McHenry County Conservation District - *Putnam Country Conservation District - *Rock Island Forest Preserve District - *Vermilion County Conservation District - *Forest Preserve District of Will County - *Winnebago County Forest Preserve District -

References

External links

Illinois Department of Natural ResourcesRecreation.gov
{{United States topic , title = Protected areas of the United States by political division , prefix = Protected areas of Protected areas of Illinois, * Illinois geography-related lists, Protected areas Lists of protected areas of the United States, Illinois State parks of Illinois, *Protected