26 Illinois Natural History Survey Circular 49 



and numerous species of other animals including protozoans, worms, 

 fishes, birds, reptiles, and mammals. 



THE DUNESLAND AS A HERITAGE 

 After the glaciers came man. Accounts of the first European 

 travelers who explored North America indicate that pre-European 

 man did not alter appreciably the landscape and vegetation of Illinois. 

 The advent of European man, however, signaled a tremendous change. 

 Native vegetation was cleared or plowed under and its place taken 

 by farms, railroads, highways, cities, and factories. This conversion 

 has progressed to the point that in Illinois we now have remarkably 

 few relatively undisturbed areas that portray accurately what the 

 native life actually was at the time European man arrived. Such 

 pristine spots as still remain constitute a unique natural heritage for 

 the people of Illinois. The Dunesland is certainly one of those unique 

 remnants in which we have the opportunity to see the effects of great 

 geological events on the distribution and perseverance of native plants 

 and animals. 



