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IMC033
LAKE IN THE HILLS FEN
- Location:
- Algonquin Township (T43N,R8E) Sections 17,20,21
Size: 450 acres
- Natural Resources
- Communities
- Dry gravel prairie (C)
- Sedge meadow (A,B,C)
- Graminoid fen (A,B,C)
- Calcareous seep (A,B)
- Calcareous floating mat (A)
- Streamside marsh (C)
- Rare Plants:
- Asclepias lanuginosa/Woolly milkweed (E)
- Carex cryptolepis/Small yellow sedge (E)
- Carex viridula/Sedge (E)
- Eleocharis pauciflora/Few-flowered spike rush (E)
- Scirpus cespitosus/Tufted bulrush (E)
- Triglochin maritima/Common bog arrow grass (E)
- Triglochin palustris/Slender bog arrow grass (E)
- Utricularia cornuta/Horned bladderwort (E)
- Valeriana uliginosa/Bog valerian (E)
- Carex crawei/Crawe's sedge (T)
- Cirsium hillii/Hill's thistle (T)
- Eleocharis rostellata/Beaked spike rush (T)
- Galium labradoricum/Bog bedstraw (T)
- Ranunculus rhomboideus/Prairie buttercup (T)
- Rhynchospora alba/White beak rush (T)
- Tofieldia glutinosa/False asphodel (T)
- Rare Animals:
- Aflexia rubranura/Redveined prairie leaf hopper (T)
- Emydoidea blandingii/Blanding's turtle (FED-SC,T)
- Dolichonyx oryzivorus/Bobolink (W-SC)
Other Significant Features:
Protection Status:
- Most protected by IDNR and Lake in the Hills (207 acres dedicated as nature preserve)
- Balance protected in MCCD and Lake in the Hills ownership
Management Problems:
- Siltation
- Erosion (from excavated gravel hills and Key Park pond)
- Gravel mining (loss of groundwater supply and altered water chemistry)
- Brush encroachment
- Abnormal flooding (beaver dams)
- Purple loosestrife
- Watercress (in spring run)
- Canary grass displacement and degradation of native plant communities
- Common reed
- Cattail infestation in seeps and fens
- Lowered water table from tile lines (some dismantled)
