McLean County is a U.S. county in the east central region of Illinois, and is the largest county by land area in the state. According to the 2020 Census, it had a population of 170,954. Its county seat is Bloomington. McLean County is included in the Bloomington–Normal, IL Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Kane County is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 516,522, making it the fifth-most populous county in Illinois. Its county seat is Geneva, and its largest city is Aurora. Kane County is one of the collar counties of the metropolitan statistical area designated "Chicago–Naperville–Elgin, IL–IN–WI" by the US census.
Le Roy is a city in McLean County, Illinois, United States. The population was 3,512 at the 2020 census.
Indiana Dunes National Park is a national park of the United States located in northwestern Indiana managed by the National Park Service. It was authorized by Congress in 1966 as the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and was redesignated as the nation's 61st national park on February 15, 2019. The park runs for about 20 miles (32 km) along the southern shore of Lake Michigan and covers 15,349 acres (6,212 ha). Along the lakefront, the eastern area is roughly the lake shore south to U.S. 12 or U.S. 20 between Michigan City, Indiana, on the east and the Cleveland-Cliffs steel plant on the west. This area's conservation scheme is enhanced by the older Indiana Dunes State Park. To the west of the steel plant lies West Beach and a small extension south of the steel mill continues west along Salt Creek to Indiana 249. The western area is roughly the shoreline south to U.S. 12 between the Burns Ditch west to Broadway in downtown Gary, Indiana. In addition, there are several outlying areas, including Pinhook Bog, in LaPorte County to the east; the Heron Rookery in Porter County, the center of the park; and the Hoosier Prairie State Nature Preserve and the Hobart Prairie Grove, both in Lake County, the western end of the park.
The Kankakee River is a tributary of the Illinois River, approximately 133 miles (214 km) long, in the Central Corn Belt Plains of northwestern Indiana and northeastern Illinois in the United States. At one time, the river drained one of the largest wetlands in North America and furnished a significant portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. Significantly altered from its original channel, it flows through a primarily rural farming region of reclaimed cropland, south of Lake Michigan.
The Piney Woods is a temperate coniferous forest terrestrial ecoregion in the Southern United States covering 54,400 square miles (141,000 km2) of East Texas, southern Arkansas, western Louisiana, and southeastern Oklahoma. These coniferous forests are dominated by several species of pine as well as hardwoods including hickory and oak. Historically the most dense part of this forest region was the Big Thicket though the lumber industry dramatically reduced the forest concentration in this area and throughout the Piney Woods during the 19th and 20th centuries. The World Wide Fund for Nature considers the Piney Woods to be one of the critically endangered ecoregions of the United States. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines most of this ecoregion as the South Central Plains.
The Northern California coastal forests are a temperate coniferous forests ecoregion of coastal Northern California and southwestern Oregon.
The Forest Preserve District of Cook County is a governmental commission in Cook County, Illinois, that owns and manages land containing forest, prairie, wetland, streams, and lakes. These land holdings are primarily managed as undeveloped natural areas and for outdoor recreation. The Forest Preserve District encompasses approximately 70,000 acres of land or approximately 11% of the land in Cook County, which contains the city of Chicago and is the most densely populated urban metropolitan area in the Midwest. The Forest Preserves also owns the lands on which the Brookfield Zoo and the Chicago Botanic Garden operate, and its Chicago Portage area preserve is also affiliated with the United States National Park Service.
The Forest Preserve District of DuPage County is a governmental agency headquartered in Wheaton, Illinois, United States. Its mission is to acquire and hold lands containing forests, prairies, wetlands, and associated plant communities or lands capable of being restored to such natural conditions for the purpose of protecting and preserving the flora, fauna and scenic beauty for the education, pleasure and recreation of the citizens of DuPage County.
The Ned Brown Forest Preserve, popularly known as Busse Woods, adjoining Rolling Meadows, Elk Grove Village and Schaumburg in Illinois, is a 3,700-acre (1,500 ha) unit of the Cook County Forest Preserve system. It is named after Edward "Ned" Eagle Brown. A section of the northeast quadrant of the forest preserve is the Busse Forest Nature Preserve, which was registered as a National Natural Landmark in February 1980. Busse Forest Preserve was named for Cook County Commissioner William Busse in 1949.
Randolph Township is located in McLean County, Illinois. As of the 2010 census, its population was 4,375 and it contained 1,636 housing units.
Sugar Creek, a tributary of the Sangamon River, is a large creek in central Illinois, United States. It rises in Talkington Township in southwestern Sangamon County, flows briefly through northeastern Macoupin County, and then runs northeastward through south-central Sangamon County before discharging into Lake Springfield. The creek drains Auburn and Virden, Illinois and has a total length of 52.8 miles (85.0 km).
Hal Scott Regional Preserve and Park is a 9,515-acre (38.51 km2) nature preserve located along the banks of the Econlockhatchee River in east Orange County, Florida, United States. The Preserve is bordered by the Econlockhatchee on the West and Wedgefield, Florida on the East. It is managed by the St. Johns River Water Management District and Orange County Parks and Recreation. Recreational amenities include camping, hiking, horseback riding, mountain biking, fishing, and wildlife viewing.
Lick Creek is a 30.6-mile-long (49.2 km) tributary of Lake Springfield and thus a tributary of the Sangamon River in central Illinois. It drains a large portion of southwestern Sangamon County and a marginal adjacent fragment of southeastern Morgan County. The drainage of Lick Creek includes all of Loami, Illinois and part of Chatham, Illinois.
The Funk Family is composed of Midwestern United States pioneers who did business in the fields of agriculture, politics, finance and civic life. Abraham Lincoln was one of Funk Farms' first attorneys and later served in the Illinois House of Representatives with Isaac Funk, who was a friend of Lincoln's and a booster when Lincoln ran for president. Funk and Lincoln were also responsible for bringing the Chicago & Alton Railroad through Bloomington-Normal in McLean County, detouring it from its originally planned route through Peoria.
Twin Grove is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in McLean County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 census, Twin Grove had a population of 1,524.
Pilot Grove State Preserve is a historic site located southwest of Williamsburg, Iowa, United States in rural Iowa County. The site is a wooded knoll surrounded by prairie between the North English River and Old Man's Creek. It consists of hickory, oak and walnut trees, along with patches of virgin prairie covered with bluestem, gramma, switch and Indian grasses, and a variety of native prairie wildflowers. There was no other timber in the area during the early years of Iowa's settlement, and it was a landmark for the pioneers traveling west across the state. It was given its name because it gave people who traveled to and from Marengo, Iowa a sense of direction. A 4-acre (1.6 ha) cemetery was established adjacent to the knoll in 1867. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. The property had been owned by the Kelting family, who donated it to the Iowa Conservation Commission so that they could restore it and maintain its mid-19th-century condition at the time of Iowa's pioneer settlement. It was dedicated as a historical state preserve in 1980.
Goll Woods State Nature Preserve is a 321-acre (130 ha) nature preserve in western Fulton County, Ohio, near Archbold. It has been designated a National Natural Landmark for its oak–hickory forest.
