Spring 1998

This preserve features Lake County's only dry hill prairie.

Lake County, Illinois

Woodlands, pine groves, and large tracts of open grassland join the namesake wetlands to make Cuba Marsh Forest Preserve a popular spot for both humans and wildlife. This site, like many area preserves, was farmed for years, then faced subdivision into housing tracts. But nearby residents opposed the developer's plans and urged its preservation as natural land. The Forest Preserves began acquiring the land in 1976. Preserve staff removed drainage tiles to restore the natural water flow and worked with conservationists to devise a restoration plan that includes tree plantings and occasional controlled burns.

While the 600-acre preserve is popular green space in a highly developed area and provides much-needed habitat for a number of plants and animals, much of the land is not yet restored to its native state. The grasslands that occupy much of the preserve are mostly non-native plants, leftovers from when the land was pasture. The grasses attract birds such as bobolinks, meadowlarks, eastern kingbirds, and bluebirds; converting it to prairie should attract an even greater variety. Removal of drainage tiles, reseeding, and burns are all important. The change must be made gradually, however, to avoid disturbing the birds already there.

Buckthorn, an aggressive, non-native species, currently chokes much of the 90 acres of oak woodlands. Buckthorn leaves grow early in the spring and stay on the plant until late fall.

Other understory plants get no sunlight and die off. The resulting lack of diversity hurts the entire ecosystem: fewer species of plants attract fewer insects, which attract fewer birds. The Forest Preserves continues to remove buckthorn throughout the woodlands to encourage a more savanna-like environment. Other parts of the preserve are already quite healthy. The many large pine groves, a favored spot for screech owls and song birds, were planted by the Forest Preserves after it began administering the site.

The 130 acres of wetland include a hemimarsh, a mixture of plants and open water that attracts a great variety of birds. Endangered species such as pied-billed grebes, least bitterns, and yellow-headed blackbirds all nest there. Herons and egrets make regular stopovers, although they have not nested at Cuba Marsh; they probably fly in from rookeries on the Fox River. Forest Preserve workers recently cleared a wooded knoll in the middle of the wetlands, hoping the herons will take note and set up a rookery there.

On the eastern side of the preserve sits Lake County's only dry hill prairie, not surprisingly on the only part of the site that was never farmed. There visitors will find rare plants with poetic names like prairie smoke and seneca snakeroot. The area is not on the trail system, but the Forest Preserves hosts frequent guided walks and nature programs.

Hiking, jogging, and biking are permitted. The trails, paved with crushed limestone, pass through a good portion of the preserve. Restrooms and drinking water are located near the parking lot. Cuba Marsh is open from 6:30am to sunset.

— Chris Larson