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Where Nature Still Thrives: A Sampling of Biologically Important Sites within the Calumet Areas
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1. Lake Calumet The open waters, shoreline, and dikes of the lake comprise 780 acres, which are under the jurisdiction of the Illinois International Port District. This site provides critical breeding and foraging habitat for numerous birds, including double-crested cormorants, ring-billed gull (largest nesting colony in state), herring gull (largest nesting colony in state), herons, and sandpipers. Surveys taken in the 1980s revealed that 26 species of fish (including the state threatened Iowa darter) reside in the lake. 2. Wolf Lake Wolf Lake, at 804 acres, straddles the Illinois and Indiana state lines. Three major parks on the lake- William Powers State Conservation Area (Illinois), Wolf Lake Park (Hammond), Forsythe Park (Hammond)- draw over a million people a year. The lake and its environs are known to harbor migrant birds, two rare fish and several rare plants. 3. Powderhorn Lake and Prairie Managed by the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, this sites preserves a mosaic of open water, marsh, sand prairie, and sand savanna. Numerous rare species occur here, including banded killifish, Franklin’s ground squirrel, and least bittern. 4. Eggers Woods The 250 acres protected here by the Forest Preserve District of Cook County include a marsh (used by such rare birds as the yellow-headed blackbird) and high quality sand savanna rich in rare plants. 5. Big Marsh This 300-acre site is owned by Waste Management, which allows some public access. Although the marsh has little plant diversity, its size and attractiveness to nesting and migrating birds makes it extremely important. Depending on water levels, such rare birds as least bitterns, black-crowned night-herons, pied-billed grebes, and common moorhens use the area to nest. 6. Indian Ridge Marshes This privately owned 165 acre wetland attracts numerous wetland birds, including common moorhen and a variety of herons. 7. 130th Street Marsh (Hegewisch Marsh) This wetland complex is being acquired by the City of Chicago as a refuge and educational center. It provides breeding and/or foraging habitat for numerous birds, including herons, pied-billed grebes, common moorhens, and migrant landbirds (vireos, thrushes, warblers, etc.). 8. Clark and Pine Nature Preserve Owned by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, this site is one of the best preserved of the original ridges and swales that once crisscrossed northwest Indiana. Numerous rare plants and animals live here. 9. Gibson Woods Nature Preserve Protected by the Lake County Park District, this ridge and swale complex of 120 acres features numerous migrating birds and many rare plants, including several species of orchids. There is also an excellent nature center staffed with naturalists. 10. Miller Woods Owned by the City of Gary, these 870 acres comprise the western most portion of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. It includes several high quality plant communities (including a globally threatened wetland known as a panne) and at least 70 locally unusual plants. |
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