The 997-acre Fults Hill Prairie State Natural Area is owned and managed by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR). Most of this unique natural area was purchased between 1970 and 1976. From the uplands of Fults Hill Prairie Nature Preserve to the lowlands of Kidd Lake Marsh, a variety of plants and animals can be found, some common and some found nowhere else in the state.

Fults Hill Prairie Nature Preserve consists of 532 acres of uplands and includes woodland, prairie and glade communities. It has the largest complex of high quality loess hill prairies in Illinois. Prairies were once the dominant natural community in Illinois. The Illinois Nature Preserve system was established to give the highest level of protection to the state's few remaining high quality natural areas; this site was dedicated as a preserve in 1970. In 1986 it was recognized federally by the U.S. Department of Interior as a National Natural Landmark.

Kidd Lake Kidd Lake State Natural Area is an example of the once expansive wetlands of the Mississippi floodplain known as the American Bottoms. The marsh was historically part of an 800-acre lake bed, and was once home to a variety of wetland birds, some now rare in Illinois. It is an important rest stop for migrating waterfowl and continues to provide critical habitat to a diverse range of birds, as well as amphibians and reptiles.

Limestone Glade

Open, prairie-like areas are on more shallow soils with extensive limestone outcropping, are called limestone glades. Vegetation is more sparse and shorter than the prairie's vegetation. The dominant grasses are little bluestem and side-oats gramma. Common forbs include American aloe, purple prairie clover, false boneset and Missouri orange coneflower. Some of the characteristic glade plants are more typical of the Missouri Ozarks and are limited in Illinois to this preserve. The "Lost Glades" were not actively managed by fire and other brush control techniques until the early 1990s and have become dominated by trees.

Forests

The forests of this preserve are mostly on dry sites, with black oak, post oak and black hickory. Forests of the ravines have more moisture and contain white oak, red oak, chinquapin oak, sugar maple and hickories. In dry upland areas, such as those surrounding the "Lost Glades" and loess hill prairies, there used to be savanna communities. A savanna is open woodland with a thin, scattered distribution of trees, primarily oak species, and a mixture of grasses. You can spot these areas by looking for oaks with large spreading limbs that indicate they were not competing with other trees as they grew.


Fults Hill Prairie & Kidd Lake Marsh
c/o Randolph County SRA
4301 S. Lake Dr.
Chester, IL 62233