Mitchell's Grove Nature Preserve facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Mitchell's Grove Nature Preserve |
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IUCN Category V (Protected Landscape/Seascape)
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Upland forest at Mitchell's Grove
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 Mitchell's Grove Nature Preserve
Location in Illinois
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| Location | La Salle County, Illinois, USA |
| Nearest city | Peru, Illinois |
| Area | 184 acres (74 ha) |
| Established | July 1997 |
| Governing body | Illinois Department of Natural Resources |
Mitchell's Grove Nature Preserve is a special protected area in La Salle County, Illinois. It covers about 184 acres (74 ha) of land. This preserve is located between Tomahawk Creek and the Little Vermillion River.
The preserve has many different types of land. You can find over 300 kinds of plants here! Some parts are oak savanna and prairie, which are open grassy areas with scattered trees. Other parts are mesic forests, which are moist woodlands with many different plant groups. William and Irene Mitchell gave this land to the state of Illinois in 1997 to protect it.
Contents
The Preserve's Ancient History
Mitchell's Grove was shaped a long, long time ago by giant sheets of ice. These ice sheets were part of something called the Wisconsin glaciation. As the ice moved, it left behind large rocks called Glacial erratics and a mix of sand, clay, and gravel called till.
The wide main valley you see today was probably carved out by these glaciers. The many smaller valleys were formed by water slowly wearing away the sandstone rock. The tall sandstone cliffs here are also linked to a special geological feature called the Peru Monocline Fault.
Plants and Animals of Mitchell's Grove
Scientists studied the plants here from 1999 to 2000. They found 333 different kinds of native plants. Some of these are rare or threatened, like the Burgess Forked Aster and White Cedar.
The deep valleys at Mitchell's Grove stay cool and shady because of the many trees. This makes it a special place called a Glacial refugium. It means some plants that usually grow in colder, northern places, like Swamp Saxifrage, can still thrive here.
The survey also found many tiny plants:
It's interesting that no moss or liverwort was found in areas that used to be farms.
Dealing with Invasive Species
Not all plants found here are native. In 2000, scientists found 63 types of Invasive species. These are plants that are not from around here and can harm the native ecosystem.
For example, Amur Honeysuckle is an invasive plant from Asia. It has become very common in the shrub layer of the bottomland forest. In the open prairie and savannah, Reed Canary Grass is also spreading. If these plants are not managed, they could change the preserve's natural environment a lot.
Water Quality and Aquatic Life
From 1998 to 1999, scientists checked the water quality in Tomahawk Creek and the Little Vermillion River. They found the water quality was generally good to fair, depending on the time of year.
They studied the aquatic insects living in the water, like mayflies and caddisflies. These insects help scientists figure out how healthy the water is. This is called the Index of biological integrity.
Scientists noticed that the Little Vermillion River sometimes had cloudy water. This cloudiness was caused by water running off from nearby farms and a rock quarry upstream from the preserve.
