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The Nature Conservancy in Illinois Illinois Contact Places We Protect Field Trips & Events Press Releases Volunteer Ways of Giving |
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The Cache River Wetlands
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The Grassy Slough preserve, the Conservancy's signature project in the Cache River watershed, once was mostly forested wetland, and efforts are underway to restore the site to its original condition. The lower stretch of the river spreads out over the flat terrain of extreme Southern Illinois and creates what early surveyors to the region described as "a drowned land."
The Nature Conservancy is working with its partners to protect this unique wetland system. Along the Cache River, in what is now 40,000 acres of protected land, the cypress and tupelo swamps seem to belong more to Louisiana than Illinois. Cypress trees that are more than a thousand years old raise their gnarled branches above the black waters here.
Because of their rich biological variety, the wetlands of the Cache River have been designated as one of only 15 "Wetlands of International Importance." This designation from the Ramsar Convention of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization ranks the Cache River with other important wetlands, such as the Florida Everglades.
Location
Near Belknap in southern Illinois
Size
2,853 acres
How to Prepare for Your Visit
Visitors to the Cache River Wetlands have many opportunities to explore the area. Trails to Heron Pond, through Limekiln Spring, and along the swamp at Perks. There are boardwalks into the swamp at Heron Pond and Section 8 Woods. Canoes can be launched at Perks and at several other locations along the river. Bike riding along the Tunnel Hill trail near Karnak provides easy access to The Farwell Memorial on the north part of the Grassy Slough Preserve. There are several miles of gravel road on the Grassy Slough preserve that can be driven or walked in search of swamp flora and fauna.
Directions to The Cache River
Contact the Southern Illinois Project Office at (618) 634-2524 for directions.
What to See at The Cache River: Plants
Bottomland hardwood forests are dominated by overcup oak, pin oak, cherrybark oak and sweetgum that give way to red oak, white oak and shagbark hickory. Barrens occur on the highest ridge tops where soils are thin and bedrock is exposed. These sites are dominated by small post oak and blackjack oak trees, scattered about open expanses of land that are dominated by grasses and forbs more commonly encountered on dry prairies. Cypress and tupelo trees and thickets of buttonbush occur in areas of shallow water.
What to See at The Cache River: Animals
Restored wetlands are attracting a myriad of bird species, including migrating waterfowl and shorebirds, bald eagles, great blue herons and great egrets. Bird-voiced tree frogs, southern leopard frogs, spring peepers, western chorus frogs, bullfrogs and American toads are among the more vocal of the area's amphibian inhabitants. Mammals found at Grassy Slough include white-tailed deer, squirrels, raccoons, beavers, gray foxes, red foxes, opossums, skunks and mink.
Why the Conservancy Selected The Cache River
The thick, lush vegetation of the hardwood forests and swamps in the Cache watershed once were home to many large mammal species that no longer are found in the region. The last sightings of wolves, bears and elk in the region came around the 1850s, when sawmills came to the Cache. Forest loss in the watershed due to logging and agriculture, especially along the lower stretch of the Cache, has been extensive. Efforts to dry out the region have resulted in modifications to the Cache that have severely effected its natural flow. This has degraded the river and associated cypress and shrub swamps. Water quality of the river has suffered greatly, due in part to soil erosion from cleared land in the watershed. Up to 150 tons of soil per acre are washed into the river and wetlands each year.
What the Conservancy Has Done/Is Doing
The Cache River Joint Venture Program, a unique public-private partnership between the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Ducks Unlimited and the Conservancy has established a goal of protecting and restoring a 60,000-acre wetland corridor along 50 miles of the Cache River.
Grassy Slough is the Conservancy's premiere site along the Cache River. In the last year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service accepted 500 acres into its Wetland Reserve Program (WRP). Through the WRP easement, the Conservancy will receive more than $700,000 for the restoration of native habitats. The restoration, which will include the creation of wetlands and the planting of bottomland hardwood tree seedlings and canebrakes, will bring the total land restored on the former vegetable farm to approximately 1,600 acres of forest and 700 acres of wetlands.
While habitat restoration is very important, much of the success of restoration efforts in the Cache depend on reconnecting the Upper and Lower Cache River. Grassy Slough is an integral component in the attempt to reconnect these flows because of its position adjacent to the point of artificial diversion between the Upper and Lower Cache River. Working with the Corps of Engineers, the State of Illinois and other partners, a plan for reconnecting the Cache River system is underway.
