4 ILLINOIS AUDUBON &SBU Tite 
The Illinois Nature Preserves System: 
What it ts How you can help 
by RICHARD THOM 
Illinois Nature Preserves Commission 
Explorers of the Illinois country in presettlement times were impressed 
by the richness of the landscape. Seemingly endless expanses of prairie, 
extensive upland forests, and marshes and bottomland forests lining ma- 
jestic rivers covered the State. A diversity of natural landforms and a 
corresponding diversity of plants and animals graced the land that is 
now Illinois. 
A modern day traveller finds little to remind him of the wild Illinois 
that existed a mere 150 years ago. Where there were prairies and 
marshes, he finds fields of corn and soybeans. Many of the forests have 
been cleared for housing and industrial developments, and many ravines 
and riverbottoms have been drowned under artificial lakes or converted 
to farmland. Glacial features such as kames and eskers have become 
gravel pits. Some of our finest streams no longer meander leisurely 
through their valleys, but flow business-like from point to point in their 
channelized beds. Even most of the land that today appears natural 
actually has been changed greatly from its presettlement condition. 
Creation of the Nature Preserves Commission 
The [Illinois Nature Preserves Commission was created in 1963 to 
identify and preserve remaining natural areas of the State—to guarantee 
that some natural features will survive. The Commission is empowered 
to maintain registries and records of the natural land resources of the 
State and to approve and supervise formal dedications of nature preserves 
into a system protected by stringent legal safeguards. 
The Commission consists of nine members appointed by the Goy- 
ernor to over-lapping three year terms. Commission members are “per- 
sons with an interest in the preservation of natural lands” and serve 
without pay. Ihe Commission has a small paid staff headed by an exec- 
utive secretary. [he staff makes recommendations to the Commission 
for its use in establishing policies on selection, acquisition, management, 
and protection of natural areas. 
